Neurotranscriptomic changes associated with chick-directed parental care in adult non-reproductive Japanese quail

Abstract 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-aggres...

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Autores principales:	Patricia C. Lopes, Robert de Bruijn
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/6a23d6b1518248ca965f236d40e16748
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:6a23d6b1518248ca965f236d40e167482021-12-02T16:31:51ZNeurotranscriptomic changes associated with chick-directed parental care in adult non-reproductive Japanese quail10.1038/s41598-021-94927-62045-2322https://doaj.org/article/6a23d6b1518248ca965f236d40e167482021-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-94927-6https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract 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.Patricia C. LopesRobert de BruijnNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Patricia C. Lopes Robert de Bruijn Neurotranscriptomic changes associated with chick-directed parental care in adult non-reproductive Japanese quail
description	Abstract 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.
format	article
author	Patricia C. Lopes Robert de Bruijn
author_facet	Patricia C. Lopes Robert de Bruijn
author_sort	Patricia C. Lopes
title	Neurotranscriptomic changes associated with chick-directed parental care in adult non-reproductive Japanese quail
title_short	Neurotranscriptomic changes associated with chick-directed parental care in adult non-reproductive Japanese quail
title_full	Neurotranscriptomic changes associated with chick-directed parental care in adult non-reproductive Japanese quail
title_fullStr	Neurotranscriptomic changes associated with chick-directed parental care in adult non-reproductive Japanese quail
title_full_unstemmed	Neurotranscriptomic changes associated with chick-directed parental care in adult non-reproductive Japanese quail
title_sort	neurotranscriptomic changes associated with chick-directed parental care in adult non-reproductive japanese quail
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/6a23d6b1518248ca965f236d40e16748
work_keys_str_mv	AT patriciaclopes neurotranscriptomicchangesassociatedwithchickdirectedparentalcareinadultnonreproductivejapanesequail AT robertdebruijn neurotranscriptomicchangesassociatedwithchickdirectedparentalcareinadultnonreproductivejapanesequail
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Neurotranscriptomic changes associated with chick-directed parental care in adult non-reproductive Japanese quail

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