Rapid behavioral and genomic responses to social opportunity.
TLDR
It is shown for the first time that subordinate males can become dominant within minutes of an opportunity to do so, displaying dramatic changes in body coloration and behavior and induction of egr-1 in the anterior preoptic area by social opportunity could be an early trigger in the molecular cascade that culminates in enhanced fertility and other long-term physiological changes associated with dominance.Abstract:
From primates to bees, social status regulates reproduction. In the cichlid fish Astatotilapia (Haplochromis) burtoni, subordinate males have reduced fertility and must become dominant to reproduce. This increase in sexual capacity is orchestrated by neurons in the preoptic area, which enlarge in response to dominance and increase expression of gonadotropin-releasing hormone 1 (GnRH1), a peptide critical for reproduction. Using a novel behavioral paradigm, we show for the first time that subordinate males can become dominant within minutes of an opportunity to do so, displaying dramatic changes in body coloration and behavior. We also found that social opportunity induced expression of the immediate-early gene egr-1 in the anterior preoptic area, peaking in regions with high densities of GnRH1 neurons, and not in brain regions that express the related peptides GnRH2 and GnRH3. This genomic response did not occur in stable subordinate or stable dominant males even though stable dominants, like ascending males, displayed dominance behaviors. Moreover, egr-1 in the optic tectum and the cerebellum was similarly induced in all experimental groups, showing that egr-1 induction in the anterior preoptic area of ascending males was specific to this brain region. Because egr-1 codes for a transcription factor important in neural plasticity, induction of egr-1 in the anterior preoptic area by social opportunity could be an early trigger in the molecular cascade that culminates in enhanced fertility and other long-term physiological changes associated with dominance.read more
Citations
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Dynamic changes in social dominance and mPOA GnRH expression in male mice following social opportunity.
TL;DR: The findings demonstrate that male mice are able to dynamically and rapidly adjust both behavior and neuroendocrine function in response to changes in social context, and establish the social opportunity paradigm as an ethologically relevant approach for studying social competence and behavioral plasticity in mammals.
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The Need for Speed: Neuroendocrine Regulation of Socially-controlled Sex Change
TL;DR: Advances in genomics now allow study of the role of epigenetic modifications and other regulatory mechanisms in the dramatic alterations across the sex-change process, and contributions of other neuroendocrine systems should be better characterized.
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Organization of the gymnotiform fish pallium in relation to learning and memory: I. Cytoarchitectonics and cellular morphology
TL;DR: The anatomical organization of the dorsal telencephalon of two gymnotiform fish is examined, finding that the pallial cytoarchitectonics of Gymnotus sp.
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Maternal care and altered social phenotype in a recently collected stock of Astatotilapia burtoni cichlid fish
TL;DR: It is shown that weight loss during starvation, either during brooding or with restriction of food, is greater in the LS than in the WS; thus, the observed behavioral differences may be tied to metabolic differences.
References
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Are subordinates always stressed? a comparative analysis of rank differences in cortisol levels among primates
David H. Abbott,Eric B. Keverne,Fred B. Bercovitch,Carol A. Shively,Sally P. Mendoza,Wendy Saltzman,Charles T. Snowdon,Toni E. Ziegler,M Banjevic,Theodore Garland,Robert M. Sapolsky +10 more
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For Whom The Bird Sings: Context-Dependent Gene Expression
TL;DR: It is shown that the anterior forebrain vocal pathway contains medial and lateral "cortical-basal ganglia" subdivisions that have differential ZENK gene activation depending on whether the bird sings female-directed or undirected song.
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The EGR family of transcription-regulatory factors: progress at the interface of molecular and systems neuroscience
TL;DR: Recent systems-based studies underscore the remarkable sensitivity and specificity of the induction of the expression of genes encoding EGR-family members in naturally occurring plasticity paradigms, but they also challenge conventional views of the role of this family in plasticity.
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The Egr-1 transcription factor directly activates PTEN during irradiation-induced signalling
TL;DR: The PTEN tumour suppressor and pro-apoptotic gene is frequently mutated in human cancers and loss of Egr-1 expression could deregulate the PTEN gene and contribute to the radiation resistance of some cancer cells.
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The Genomic Action Potential
TL;DR: Critical review of the large literature describing the "immediate early gene" response leads to an alternative model of IEG function in the brain, which sets the overall gain or efficiency of memory formation and directs it to circuits engaged by behaviorally significant contexts.