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Neurotranscriptomic changes associated with chick-directed parental care in adult non-reproductive Japanese quail
Patricia C Lopes1, Robert de Bruijn2
1Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA. lopes@chapman.edu.
Insights
Parental care in animals is vital for offspring survival. This study reveals key brain gene expression changes in Japanese quail, identifying neurotensin and urocortin 3 as potentially crucial for young-directed behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Biology
- Genomics
Background:
- Parental care is essential for offspring survival across many species.
- Neural mechanisms underlying parental care are well-studied in mammals but less understood in other vertebrates.
- Pregnancy triggers physiological changes in mammals that promote parental behaviors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural basis of young-directed parental care in a non-mammalian model.
- To identify neural transcriptomic changes associated with the induction of parental behavior in Japanese quail.
- To explore the role of specific genes, neurotensin and urocortin 3, in parental care.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a sensitization procedure to induce parental behavior in reproductively quiescent adult Japanese quail.
- Employed neural transcriptomics to analyze gene expression changes in the hypothalamus and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis.
- Compared gene expression between individuals that exhibited parental behavior and those that did not.
Main Results:
- Identified significant differences in gene expression in the hypothalamus and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis.
- Found differential expression of neurotensin and urocortin 3 genes, both previously linked to parental care in mammals.
- Demonstrated that these neural changes occur independently of extensive hormonal stimulation due to reproductive quiescence.
Conclusions:
- Neurotensin and urocortin 3 are potential key regulators of young-directed parental care in birds.
- These findings suggest conserved neural mechanisms for parental care across vertebrates, even in non-placental species.
- Opens new research avenues into the neurobiology of avian parental care.
Abstract:
For many species, parental care critically affects offspring survival. But what drives animals to display parental behaviours towards young? In mammals, pregnancy-induced physiological transformations seem key in preparing the neural circuits that lead towards attraction (and reduced-aggression) to young. Beyond mammalian maternal behaviour, knowledge of the neural mechanisms that underlie young-directed parental care is severely lacking. We took advantage of a domesticated bird species, the Japanese quail, for which parental behaviour towards chicks can be induced in virgin non-reproductive adults through a sensitization procedure, a process that is not effective in all animals. We used the variation in parental responses to study neural transcriptomic changes associated with the sensitization procedure itself and with the outcome of the procedure (i.e., presence of parental behaviours). We found differences in gene expression in the hypothalamus and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, but not the nucleus taeniae. Two genes identified are of particular interest. One is neurotensin, previously only demonstrated to be causally associated with maternal care in mammals. The other one is urocortin 3, causally demonstrated to affect young-directed neglect and aggression in mammals. Because our studies were conducted in animals that were reproductively quiescent, our results reflect core neural changes that may be associated with avian young-directed care independently of extensive hormonal stimulation. Our work opens new avenues of research into understanding the neural basis of parental care in non-placental species.
