Seasonal regulation of singing-driven gene expression associated with song plasticity in the canary, an open-ended vocal learner.

ABSTRACT: Songbirds are one of the few animal taxa that possess vocal learning abilities. Different species of songbirds exhibit species-specific learning programs during song acquisition. Songbirds with open-ended vocal learning capacity, such as the canary, modify their songs during adulthood. Nevertheless, the neural molecular mechanisms underlying open-ended vocal learning are not fully understood. We investigated the singing-driven expression of neural activity-dependent genes (Arc, Egr1, c-fos, Nr4a1, Sik1, Dusp6, and Gadd45β) in the canary to examine a potential relationship between the gene expression level and the degree of seasonal vocal plasticity at different ages. The expression of these genes was differently regulated throughout the critical period of vocal learning in the zebra finch,

SUBMITTER: Hayase S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8556994 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature