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Distinct patterns of gene expression in the medial preoptic area are related to gregarious singing behavior in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)
BACKGROUND: Song performed in flocks by European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), referred to here as gregarious song, is a non-sexual, social behavior performed by adult birds. Gregarious song is thought to be an intrinsically reinforced behavior facilitated by a low-stress, positive affective state t...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10399071/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37537543 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12868-023-00813-4 |
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author | Polzin, Brandon J. Stevenson, Sharon A. Gammie, Stephen C. Riters, Lauren V. |
author_facet | Polzin, Brandon J. Stevenson, Sharon A. Gammie, Stephen C. Riters, Lauren V. |
author_sort | Polzin, Brandon J. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Song performed in flocks by European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), referred to here as gregarious song, is a non-sexual, social behavior performed by adult birds. Gregarious song is thought to be an intrinsically reinforced behavior facilitated by a low-stress, positive affective state that increases social cohesion within a flock. The medial preoptic area (mPOA) is a region known to have a role in the production of gregarious song. However, the neurochemical systems that potentially act within this region to regulate song remain largely unexplored. In this study, we used RNA sequencing to characterize patterns of gene expression in the mPOA of male and female starlings singing gregarious song to identify possibly novel neurotransmitter, neuromodulator, and hormonal pathways that may be involved in the production of gregarious song. RESULTS: Differential gene expression analysis and rank rank hypergeometric analysis indicated that dopaminergic, cholinergic, and GABAergic systems were associated with the production of gregarious song, with multiple receptor genes (e.g., DRD2, DRD5, CHRM4, GABRD) upregulated in the mPOA of starlings who sang at high rates. Additionally, co-expression network analyses identified co-expressing gene clusters of glutamate signaling-related genes associated with song. One of these clusters contained five glutamate receptor genes and two glutamate scaffolding genes and was significantly enriched for genetic pathways involved in neurodevelopmental disorders associated with social deficits in humans. Two of these genes, GRIN1 and SHANK2, were positively correlated with performance of gregarious song. CONCLUSIONS: This work provides new insights into the role of the mPOA in non-sexual, gregarious song in starlings and highlights candidate genes that may play a role in gregarious social interactions across vertebrates. The provided data will also allow other researchers to compare across species to identify conserved systems that regulate social behavior. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12868-023-00813-4. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10399071 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-103990712023-08-04 Distinct patterns of gene expression in the medial preoptic area are related to gregarious singing behavior in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) Polzin, Brandon J. Stevenson, Sharon A. Gammie, Stephen C. Riters, Lauren V. BMC Neurosci Research BACKGROUND: Song performed in flocks by European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), referred to here as gregarious song, is a non-sexual, social behavior performed by adult birds. Gregarious song is thought to be an intrinsically reinforced behavior facilitated by a low-stress, positive affective state that increases social cohesion within a flock. The medial preoptic area (mPOA) is a region known to have a role in the production of gregarious song. However, the neurochemical systems that potentially act within this region to regulate song remain largely unexplored. In this study, we used RNA sequencing to characterize patterns of gene expression in the mPOA of male and female starlings singing gregarious song to identify possibly novel neurotransmitter, neuromodulator, and hormonal pathways that may be involved in the production of gregarious song. RESULTS: Differential gene expression analysis and rank rank hypergeometric analysis indicated that dopaminergic, cholinergic, and GABAergic systems were associated with the production of gregarious song, with multiple receptor genes (e.g., DRD2, DRD5, CHRM4, GABRD) upregulated in the mPOA of starlings who sang at high rates. Additionally, co-expression network analyses identified co-expressing gene clusters of glutamate signaling-related genes associated with song. One of these clusters contained five glutamate receptor genes and two glutamate scaffolding genes and was significantly enriched for genetic pathways involved in neurodevelopmental disorders associated with social deficits in humans. Two of these genes, GRIN1 and SHANK2, were positively correlated with performance of gregarious song. CONCLUSIONS: This work provides new insights into the role of the mPOA in non-sexual, gregarious song in starlings and highlights candidate genes that may play a role in gregarious social interactions across vertebrates. The provided data will also allow other researchers to compare across species to identify conserved systems that regulate social behavior. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12868-023-00813-4. BioMed Central 2023-08-03 /pmc/articles/PMC10399071/ /pubmed/37537543 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12868-023-00813-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Research Polzin, Brandon J. Stevenson, Sharon A. Gammie, Stephen C. Riters, Lauren V. Distinct patterns of gene expression in the medial preoptic area are related to gregarious singing behavior in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) |
title | Distinct patterns of gene expression in the medial preoptic area are related to gregarious singing behavior in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) |
title_full | Distinct patterns of gene expression in the medial preoptic area are related to gregarious singing behavior in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) |
title_fullStr | Distinct patterns of gene expression in the medial preoptic area are related to gregarious singing behavior in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) |
title_full_unstemmed | Distinct patterns of gene expression in the medial preoptic area are related to gregarious singing behavior in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) |
title_short | Distinct patterns of gene expression in the medial preoptic area are related to gregarious singing behavior in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) |
title_sort | distinct patterns of gene expression in the medial preoptic area are related to gregarious singing behavior in european starlings (sturnus vulgaris) |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10399071/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37537543 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12868-023-00813-4 |
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