Male specific impact of parental care on gene expression in nucleus accumbens
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Microtus ochrogaster
PROVIDER: GSE229256 | GEO | 2023/07/31
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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Project description:In socially monogamous prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), parental behaviors not only occur in mothers and fathers, but also can exist in virgin males. However, some virgin males display aggressive behaviors towards conspecific pups. Although this behavioral dichotomy in response to pup exposure has been well documented in male virgin voles, little is known about the gene expression changes underlie the parental behavioral differences and their regulatory mechanisms. To address this, we profiled the transcriptome and DNA methylome of hippocampal dentate gyrus of four prairie vole groups, attacker virgin males, parental virgin males, fathers, and mothers. We found a concordant pattern of gene transcription in parental virgin males and fathers, when comparing to the attacker group. The methylome analysis also revealed pathways with genes enriched for epigenetic changes involving both receptor-mediated and secondary messenger signaling across both behavioral phenotypes and sexual experiences. Furthermore, we found correlations between gene expression changes and DNA methylation differences between attacker and parental virgin males, which suggests a canonical gene expression regulatory role of DNA methylation in paternal care. Therefore, our study presents an integrated view of transcriptome and epigenome that provides a DNA epigenetic based molecular insight of paternal behavior.
2023-07-12 | GSE214798 | GEO
Project description:In socially monogamous prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), parental behaviors not only occur in mothers and fathers, but also can exist in virgin males. However, some virgin males display aggressive behaviors towards conspecific pups. Although this behavioral dichotomy in response to pup exposure has been well documented in male virgin voles, little is known about the gene expression changes underlie the parental behavioral differences and their regulatory mechanisms. To address this, we profiled the transcriptome and DNA methylome of hippocampal dentate gyrus of four prairie vole groups, attacker virgin males, parental virgin males, fathers, and mothers. We found a concordant pattern of gene transcription in parental virgin males and fathers, when comparing to the attacker group. The methylome analysis also revealed pathways with genes enriched for epigenetic changes involving both receptor-mediated and secondary messenger signaling across both behavioral phenotypes and sexual experiences. Furthermore, we found correlations between gene expression changes and DNA methylation differences between attacker and parental virgin males, which suggests a canonical gene expression regulatory role of DNA methylation in paternal care. Therefore, our study presents an integrated view of transcriptome and epigenome that provides a DNA epigenetic based molecular insight of paternal behavior.
2023-07-12 | GSE214797 | GEO
Project description:This dataset contains RNA sequencing results from adult male prairie voles that were in either opposite-sex or same-sex pairs that were subsequently either separated from or remained paired with their partner for either 48 hours or 4 weeks prior to collecting nucleus accumbens tissue. The goal of this experiment was to determine the nucleus accumbens transcriptional response specific to separation from an opposite-sex partner. RNA sequencing was done on polyA enriched transcripts using Illumina single-end sequencing. Samples from 3 groups were from a Ribo-seq protocol using a virally delievered, vole optimized Translating Ribosome Affinity Purification construct (Heiman et al., 2008). These samples contain files for both the input fraction and the pulldown fraction (denoted with a _P suffix).
2023-04-17 | GSE192661 | GEO
Project description:We examined gene expression differences associated with parental care in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides
2015-08-20 | GSE72225 | GEO
Project description:Background: The ability to form enduring social bonds is characteristic of human nature and as a result, impairments in social affiliation are central features of severe neuropsychiatric disorders including autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia. Due to its ability to form long-term pair-bonds, the socially monogamous prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) has emerged as an excellent model to study the neurobiology of social attachment. Despite the enduring nature of the bond, however, surprisingly few genes have been implicated in the pair-bonding process in either sex. Results: Using RNA-sequencing, we aimed at identifying the transcriptomic regulations in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) underlying the formation and maintenance of a pair-bond in male and female prairie voles and found sex-specific response patterns despite similar behavioral indicators of pair-bond establishment. Indeed, 24 hrs of cohabitation with an opposite-sex partner induced widespread transcriptomic changes that remained sustained to some extent in females after 3 weeks, but returned to baseline before a second set of regulations in males. This led to a highly sexually-biased NAc transcriptome in the later phase of the bond related to processes such as neurotransmission, protein turnover, and DNA transcription. In particular, we found sex-specific alterations of mitochondrial dynamics following cohabitation, with a shift towards fission in males. Conclusions: In addition to identifying the genes, networks, and pathways involved in the pair-bonding process in the NAc, our work illustrates the vast extent of sex differences in the molecular mechanisms underlying pair-bonding in prairie voles, and paves the way to further our understanding of the complex social bonding process.
2023-04-28 | GSE150080 | GEO
Project description:An Infinium microarray platform (GPL28271, HorvathMammalMethylChip40) was used to generate DNA methylation data from several tissues from prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). Ear, liver, and brain samples from the Cornell University prairie vole colony were collected from 48 male and female prairie voles at various life stages: neonatal (<1 month old), sub-adult (2-4 months old), mature adult (4-10 months old), and middle aged/old adult (>10 months old). The pair bonded male and female prairie voles used in our study cohabitated with their partners for several months and produced at least three generations of litters. Animals were euthanized via rapid decapitation, their tissues rapidly extracted and frozen on dry ice before being stored at -80C until further processing for genomic DNA extraction. Brains were coronally sectioned and brain regions from the pair bonding circuit (PBC) were micro-dissected and pooled for each animal. The PBC brain regions included the prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, lateral septum, ventral pallidum, and medial amygdala, and ventral tegmental area. Genomic DNA was isolated and purified using the phenol-chloroform extraction and ethanol precipitation method. A total of 144 tissue samples were collected and processed for DNA methylation analysis. Tissues: Brain, Ear, Liver
2023-08-07 | GSE174758 | GEO
Project description: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.
2021-07-22 | GSE162378 | GEO
Project description:The importance of fathers' engagement in care and its critical role in the offspring’s cognitive and emotional development is now well established. Yet, little is known on the underlying neurobiology due to the lack of appropriate animal models. In the socially monogamous and bi-parental prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster), while most virgin males show spontaneous paternal behaviors (Paternal), others display pup-directed aggression (Attackers). Here we took advantage of this phenotypic dichotomy and used RNA-sequencing in three important brain areas to characterize gene expression associated with paternal behaviors of Paternal males and compare it to experienced fathers and mothers. This strategy allowed the identification of spontaneous paternal behaviors independently from fatherhood and pair-bonding. While Paternal males displayed the same range and extent of paternal behaviors than experienced Fathers, the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and medial preoptic area (MPOA) transcriptomes mainly reflected pair-bonded status or sex differences, respectively. The lateral septum (LS) transcriptome, however, primarily reflected phenotypic differences between Paternal and Attackers and suggested the involvement of the mitochondria, RNA translation, and protein degradation processes. Altogether, these observations highlight a marked structure- and phenotype-specific pattern of gene expression underlying paternal behaviors in prairie voles and highlight similarities and differences from those underlying fatherhood.
2022-10-05 | GSE190213 | GEO
Project description:Nuclear receptor subfamily 1, group D, member 1 (Nr1d1) (also known as Rev-erb alpha) has been linked to circadian rhythm regulation, mood-related behavior, and disorders associated with social deficits. Recent work from our laboratory found striking decreases in Nr1d1 in nucleus accumbens (NAc) in the maternal condition and indirect evidence that Nr1d1 was interacting with numerous addiction and reward-related genes to modulate social reward. In this study, we applied our insights from the maternal state to non-parental adult mice to determine whether decreases in Nr1d1 expression in NAc via adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors and short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated gene knockdown were sufficient to modulate social reward and mood-related behaviors. We also used microarray analysis of to identify gene expression alterations induced by the lowering of Nr1d1 expression. We used microarrays to evalute the effects of knockdown of mRNA for Nr1d1 in nuclues accumbens on gene expression.
2018-09-01 | GSE110363 | GEO