The Gene Expression Profile of the Song Control Nucleus HVC Shows Sex Specificity, Hormone Responsiveness, and Species Specificity Among Songbirds.

ABSTRACT: Singing occurs in songbirds of both sexes, but some species show typical degrees of sex-specific performance. We studied the transcriptional sex differences in the HVC, a brain nucleus critical for song pattern generation, of the forest weaver (Ploceus bicolor), the blue-capped cordon-bleu (Uraeginthus cyanocephalus), and the canary (Serinus canaria), which are species that show low, medium, and high levels of sex-specific singing, respectively. We observed persistent sex differences in gene expression levels regardless of the species-specific sexual singing phenotypes. We further studied the HVC transcriptomes of defined phenotypes of canary, known for its testosterone-sensitive seasonal singing. By studying both sexes of canaries during both breeding and non-breeding

SUBMITTER: Ko MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8200640 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature