Brain transcriptomics of a social challenge and maternal aggression in incubating female tree swallows.

ABSTRACT: Aggressive behavior is ubiquitous across many contexts, including defense of territories, mates, and offspring. For decades, researchers have detailed the effect of aggressive behavior on physiology, but our understanding of these mechanisms in females lags behind that of males, despite the fact that female aggression is widespread, particularly in the context of maternal defense of eggs or offspring (i.e., maternal aggression). Here, we measured effects of a social challenge on brain gene expression in free-living incubating females. We hypothesized that the social challenge would generate at least one of three transcriptomic effects: (1) sensitizing the brain to otherwise low levels of sex steroids, (2) changing other neuroendocrine signaling pathways associated with social behavior (e.g

SUBMITTER: Levy EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11892343 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature