Dataset Information

Gene regulatory co-option drives birdsong neural circuit specialization [snRNA-seq]

ABSTRACT: A defining feature of our species is the ability to manipulate our environment through the fine control of our hands and to communicate with others through the rapid and complex motor orchestration of human speech. The courtship song of songbirds shares a number of neural and behavioral similarities with human speech and other learned motor skills, providing a powerful model for understanding how enhanced motor skills develop at molecular and cellular levels. Birdsong is controlled by a specialized neural circuit whose properties enable high precision and speed. In particular, glutamatergic neurons in the birdsong motor region RA (Glut-RA) have higher spike rates and narrower action potentials than projection neurons in an adjacent motor region that does not control song, the dorsal intermediate arcopallium (Glut-AId). To identify candidate gene regulatory networks that establish the specialized properties of Glut-RA neurons, we performed single-nucleus profiling of gene expression and chromatin accessibility across song and non-song motor regions. We found that Glut-RA projection neurons and fast spiking interneurons (FSIs), a GABAergic type also characterized by high spike rates and narrow action potentials, share several transcriptional similarities. In particular, the transcription factor MAFB, which is essential for the development and fast-spiking physiology of FSIs in mice, is expressed in Glut-RA but no other projection neuron type. We found that MAFB transcription factor binding sites have enhanced chromatin accessibility specifically in glutamatergic neurons in RA relative to AId. Furthermore, gene regulatory network inference and in silico knockdown of MAFB expression reveal common MAFB targets in Glut-RA neurons and FSIs, and suggest that the transcription factor is necessary to specialize song Glut-RA neurons from non-song Glut-AId neurons. These data support a model in which birdsong projection neurons co-opt an interneuron gene regulatory program to enable the rapid physiological properties required for fast and precise birdsong performance.

ORGANISM(S): Lonchura striata

PROVIDER: GSE316539 | GEO | 2026/03/02

REPOSITORIES: GEO

ACCESS DATA

Dataset's files

Source:

			Action	DRS
		Other

Items per page:

1 - 1 of 1

Similar Datasets

Project description:A defining feature of our species is the ability to manipulate our environment through the fine control of our hands and to communicate with others through the rapid and complex motor orchestration of human speech. The courtship song of songbirds shares a number of neural and behavioral similarities with human speech and other learned motor skills, providing a powerful model for understanding how enhanced motor skills develop at molecular and cellular levels. Birdsong is controlled by a specialized neural circuit whose properties enable high precision and speed. In particular, glutamatergic neurons in the birdsong motor region RA (Glut-RA) have higher spike rates and narrower action potentials than projection neurons in an adjacent motor region that does not control song, the dorsal intermediate arcopallium (Glut-AId). To identify candidate gene regulatory networks that establish the specialized properties of Glut-RA neurons, we performed single-nucleus profiling of gene expression and chromatin accessibility across song and non-song motor regions. We found that Glut-RA projection neurons and fast spiking interneurons (FSIs), a GABAergic type also characterized by high spike rates and narrow action potentials, share several transcriptional similarities. In particular, the transcription factor MAFB, which is essential for the development and fast-spiking physiology of FSIs in mice, is expressed in Glut-RA but no other projection neuron type. We found that MAFB transcription factor binding sites have enhanced chromatin accessibility specifically in glutamatergic neurons in RA relative to AId. Furthermore, gene regulatory network inference and in silico knockdown of MAFB expression reveal common MAFB targets in Glut-RA neurons and FSIs, and suggest that the transcription factor is necessary to specialize song Glut-RA neurons from non-song Glut-AId neurons. These data support a model in which birdsong projection neurons co-opt an interneuron gene regulatory program to enable the rapid physiological properties required for fast and precise birdsong performance.

Project description:Like human speech, birdsong is a complex vocal behavior that is acquired by sensorimotor learning based on coordination of auditory input and vocal output to mimic memorized tutor song. Here we investigate neural circuits for vocal learning and production in deafened songbirds to elucidate how sensory-input regulate genetic and epigenetic property of vocal development and its associated gene expression dynamics. Compared with audition-intact birds, in deafened zebra finches, the vocal development is delayed but song crystallization is observed at more than three times later, producing individually different but structured vocal patterns. In contrast to the distinct difference of vocal ontogeny between audition (+) and (-), unexpectedly, developmental regulation of gene expression dynamics is strictly conserved with age-locked trend in vocal motor circuit in both intact and deafened birds, indicating sensory-input independent robustness of developmental gene expression dynamics in the motor circuit for sensorimotor learning. This discrepancy between outward vocal phenotype and inward gene expression dynamics provides new insight into neural regulation at closing of the critical period for vocal learning by two different forms: auditory inputs-dependent M-bM-^@M-^XactiveM-bM-^@M-^Y crystallization and gene expression dynamics-mediated M-bM-^@M-^XpassiveM-bM-^@M-^Y crystallization. We collected brain samples from intact and early-deafened birds (deafened at day-post hatch 17-23) under silent and dark condition. Song nuclei in vocal motor circuit, HVC and RA tissue samples (juvenile; n = 3, young; n = 3, old; n = 3 of intact and early-deafened birds for HVC and RA) were laser-microdissected from total 24 birds (intact; n = 12, early-deafened; n = 12). Each sample was hybridized to a single array, totaling 36 arrays. Birds were selected per slide such that early-deafened birds were paired with intact birds. To minimize possible interslide bias or batch effects, intact and early-deafened bird samples matching with brain area and age conditions were hybridized side by side on same array glass.

Dataset Information

Gene regulatory co-option drives birdsong neural circuit specialization [snRNA-seq]

Dataset's files

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets