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Duque FG, Azam A, Kaur A, Pao R, Lynch KS. Divergent neural nodes are species- and hormone-dependent in the brood parasitic brain. GENES, BRAIN, AND BEHAVIOR 2024; 23:e12907. [PMID: 39246030 PMCID: PMC11381655 DOI: 10.1111/gbb.12907] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2023] [Revised: 07/02/2024] [Accepted: 07/04/2024] [Indexed: 09/10/2024]
Abstract
Avian brood parasitism is an evolutionarily derived behavior for which the neurobiological mechanisms are mostly unexplored. We aimed to identify brain regions that have diverged in the brood-parasitic brain using relative transcript abundance of social neuropeptides and receptors. We compared behavioral responses and transcript abundance in three brain regions in the brown-headed cowbird (BHCO), a brood parasite, and a closely related parental species, the red-winged blackbird (RWBL). Females of both species were treated with mesotocin (MT; avian homolog of oxytocin) or saline prior to exposure to nest stimuli. Results reveal that MT promotes approach toward nests with eggs rather than nests with begging nestlings in both species. We also examined relative transcript abundance of the five social neuropeptides and receptors in the brain regions examined: preoptic area (POA), paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST). We found that MT-treated cowbirds but not blackbirds exhibited lower transcript abundance for two receptors, corticotropin-releasing factor 2 (CRFR2) and prolactin receptor (PRLR) in BST. Additionally, MT-treated cowbirds had higher PRLR in POA, comparable to those found in blackbirds, regardless of treatment. No other transcripts of interest exhibited significant differences as a result of MT treatment, but we found a significant effect of species in the three regions. Together, these results indicate that POA, PVN, and BST represent neural nodes that have diverged in avian brood parasites and may serve as neural substrates of brood-parasitic behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fernanda G Duque
- Biology Department, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, USA
- School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois, USA
| | - Asma Azam
- Biology Department, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, USA
| | - Amanpreet Kaur
- Biology Department, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, USA
| | - Rachel Pao
- Biology Department, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, USA
| | - Kathleen S Lynch
- Biology Department, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, USA
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Kumari R, Fazekas EA, Morvai B, Udvari EB, Dóra F, Zachar G, Székely T, Pogány Á, Dobolyi Á. Transcriptomics of Parental Care in the Hypothalamic-Septal Region of Female Zebra Finch Brain. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms23052518. [PMID: 35269661 PMCID: PMC8910180 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23052518] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2022] [Revised: 02/21/2022] [Accepted: 02/22/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
(1) Background: The objective of this study was to uncover genomic causes of parental care. Since birds do not lactate and, therefore, do not show the gene expressional changes required for lactation, we investigate gene expression associated with parenting in caring and non-caring females in an avian species, the small passerine bird zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). Here, we compare expression patterns in the hypothalamic–septal region since, previously, we showed that this area is activated in parenting females. (2) Methods: Transcriptome sequencing was first applied in a dissected part of the zebra finch brain related to taking care of the nestlings as compared to a control group of social pairs without nestlings. (3) Results: We found genes differentially expressed between caring and non-caring females. When introducing a log2fold change threshold of 1.5, 13 annotated genes were significantly upregulated in breeding pairs, while 39 annotated genes were downregulated. Significant enrichments of dopamine and acetylcholine biosynthetic processes were identified among upregulated pathways, while pro-opiomelanocortin and thyroid hormone pathways were downregulated, suggesting the importance of these systems in parental care. Network analysis further suggested neuro-immunological changes in mothers. (4) Conclusions: The results confirm the roles of several hypothesized major pathways in parental care, whereas novel pathways are also proposed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rashmi Kumari
- MTA-ELTE Laboratory of Molecular and Systems Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd Network of Research Excellence and Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary; (R.K.); (E.A.F.); (E.B.U.)
- Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Emese A. Fazekas
- MTA-ELTE Laboratory of Molecular and Systems Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd Network of Research Excellence and Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary; (R.K.); (E.A.F.); (E.B.U.)
- Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary; (B.M.); (Á.P.)
| | - Boglárka Morvai
- Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary; (B.M.); (Á.P.)
| | - Edina B. Udvari
- MTA-ELTE Laboratory of Molecular and Systems Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd Network of Research Excellence and Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary; (R.K.); (E.A.F.); (E.B.U.)
| | - Fanni Dóra
- Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University, 1093 Budapest, Hungary; (F.D.); (G.Z.)
| | - Gergely Zachar
- Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University, 1093 Budapest, Hungary; (F.D.); (G.Z.)
| | - Tamás Székely
- Milner Centre for Evolution, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK;
| | - Ákos Pogány
- Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary; (B.M.); (Á.P.)
| | - Árpád Dobolyi
- MTA-ELTE Laboratory of Molecular and Systems Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd Network of Research Excellence and Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary; (R.K.); (E.A.F.); (E.B.U.)
- Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +36-1-372-2500 (ext. 8775)
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Lynch KS. The neuroethology of avian brood parasitism. J Exp Biol 2021; 224:272057. [PMID: 34486660 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.222307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Obligate brood-parasitic birds never build nests, incubate eggs or supply nestlings with food or protection. Instead, they leave their eggs in nests of other species and rely on host parents to raise their offspring, which allows the parasite to continue reproducing throughout the breeding season. Although this may be a clever fitness strategy, it is loaded with a set of dynamic challenges for brood parasites, including recognizing individuals from their own species while growing up constantly surrounded by unrelated individuals, remembering the location of potential host nests for successful reproduction and learning the song of their species while spending time being entirely surrounded by another species during a critical developmental period, a predicament that has been likened to being 'raised by wolves'. Here, I will describe what we currently know about the neurobiology associated with the challenges of being a brood parasite and what is known about the proximate mechanisms of brood parasite evolution. The neuroethology of five behaviors (mostly social) in brood parasites is discussed, including: (1) parental care (or the lack thereof), (2) species recognition, (3) song learning, (4) spatial memory and (5) pair-bonding and mate choice. This Review highlights how studies of brood parasites can lend a unique perspective to enduring neuroethological questions and describes the ways in which studying brood-parasitic species enhances our understanding of ecologically relevant behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathleen S Lynch
- Hofstra University, Department of Biology, Hempstead, NY 11549, USA
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Termignoni-Garcia F, Louder MIM, Balakrishnan CN, O’Connell L, Edwards SV. Prospects for sociogenomics in avian cooperative breeding and parental care. Curr Zool 2020; 66:293-306. [PMID: 32440290 PMCID: PMC7233861 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoz057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2019] [Accepted: 11/20/2019] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
For the last 40 years, the study of cooperative breeding (CB) in birds has proceeded primarily in the context of discovering the ecological, geographical, and behavioral drivers of helping. The advent of molecular tools in the early 1990s assisted in clarifying the relatedness of helpers to those helped, in some cases, confirming predictions of kin selection theory. Methods for genome-wide analysis of sequence variation, gene expression, and epigenetics promise to add new dimensions to our understanding of avian CB, primarily in the area of molecular and developmental correlates of delayed breeding and dispersal, as well as the ontogeny of achieving parental status in nature. Here, we outline key ways in which modern -omics approaches, in particular genome sequencing, transcriptomics, and epigenetic profiling such as ATAC-seq, can be used to add a new level of analysis of avian CB. Building on recent and ongoing studies of avian social behavior and sociogenomics, we review how high-throughput sequencing of a focal species or clade can provide a robust foundation for downstream, context-dependent destructive and non-destructive sampling of specific tissues or physiological states in the field for analysis of gene expression and epigenetics. -Omics approaches have the potential to inform not only studies of the diversification of CB over evolutionary time, but real-time analyses of behavioral interactions in the field or lab. Sociogenomics of birds represents a new branch in the network of methods used to study CB, and can help clarify ways in which the different levels of analysis of CB ultimately interact in novel and unexpected ways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Flavia Termignoni-Garcia
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Matthew I M Louder
- International Research Center for Neurointelligence, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
| | | | - Lauren O’Connell
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Scott V Edwards
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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