An epigenomic shift in amygdala marks the transition to maternal behaviors in alloparenting virgin female mice.

ABSTRACT: Adults of many species will care for young offspring that are not their own, a phenomenon called alloparenting. However, in many cases, nonparental adults must be sensitized by repeated or extended exposures to newborns before they will robustly display parental-like behaviors. To capture neurogenomic events underlying the transition to active parental caring behaviors, we analyzed brain gene expression and chromatin profiles of virgin female mice co-housed with pregnant dams during pregnancy and after birth. After an initial display of antagonistic behaviors and a surge of defense-related gene expression, we observed a dramatic shift in the chromatin landscape specifically in amygdala of the pup-exposed virgin females compared to females co-housed with mother before birth, accompanied by

SUBMITTER: Seward CH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8863255 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature