Project description:This project contains sperm and seminal fluids proteomes from selected species of passerine birds: Taeniopygia guttata, Hirundo rustica, Chloris chloris, Acrocephalus palustris, Cinclus cinclus, Phylloscopus collybita. We employed label-free proteomics to generate proteomes in the zebra finch, a songbird species with annotated genome and five wild-living songbirds representing five families within the Passerida clade, all with poorly known genomes. The results show that protein mapping of the new passerine proteomes to zebra finch genome was successful, thus, yielding highly similar protein identifications and a sufficient number of unique peptides in all the studied proteomes.
Project description:The genome of the white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) contains an inversion polymorphism on chromosome 2 that is linked to predictable variation in a suite of phenotypic traits including plumage color, aggression, and parental behavior. Differences in gene expression between the two color morphs, which represent the two common inversion genotypes (ZAL2/ZAL2 and ZAL2/ZAL2m), are therefore of potential interest toward understanding the molecular underpinnings of these phenotypes. To identify genes that are differentially expressed between the two morphs and correlated with behavior, we quantified both behavior and gene expression in a population of free-living white-throated sparrows. We quantified behavioral responses to simulated territorial intrusions (STIs) early during the breeding season. In the same birds, we then performed a transcriptomewide analysis of gene expression in two behaviorally relevant brain regions, the medial amygdala and hypothalamus. Using network analyses, we identified modules of genes that were correlated with both morph and STI-induced singing behavior. The majority of these genes were located within the inversion, demonstrating the profound effect the inversion has on the expression of genes captured by the rearrangement. Gene pathway analyses revealed that in the medial amygdala, the most prominent pathways were those related to steroid hormone receptor activity. Within these pathways, the only gene encoding such a receptor was ESR1 (estrogen receptor alpha). Our results thus suggest that ESR1 and related genes are important for behavioral differences between the morphs.