Disturbance of social hierarchy by an invasive species: a gene transcription study

Ecological and evolutionary changes in native populations facing invasion by exotic species are increasingly reported. Recently, it has been shown that competition with exotic rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) disrupts dominance hierarchies within groups of native Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). The genetic and molecular actors underlying phenotypic plasticity are poorly understood.

Here, we aimed at identifying the genetic and molecular actors contributing to this plastic loss of dominance hierarchies as well as at identifying genes implicated in behaviours related to social dominance. By using microarrays, we compared the genome-wide gene transcription profiles in brains of dominant versus subordinate juvenile Atlantic salmon in presence or absence of a competitive rainbow trout.

Adding the trout competitor resulted in dominant and subordinate salmon being more similar, both behaviourally and at the level of brain gene transcription patterns. Genes for which transcription levels differed between dominant and subordinate salmon in the absence of exotic trout were mainly over-expressed in dominant salmon and included genes implicated in protein turnover, neuronal structural change and oxygen transport.

Our study provides one of the few examples demonstrating a close interplay between behavioural plasticity and gene transcription, therefore contributing to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying these processes in an ecologically relevant context.