Matsunaga Eiji, Okanoya Kazuo
Laboratory for Biolinguistics, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Hirosawa 2-1, Wako, Japan.
Brain Res. 2008 May 7;1208:87-94. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2008.02.076. Epub 2008 Mar 7.
The androgen receptor is a steroid hormone receptor widely expressed in the vocal control nuclei in songbirds. Here, we analysed androgen receptor expression in the brains of juvenile and adult budgerigars. With a species-specific probe for budgerigar androgen receptor mRNA, we found that the androgen receptor was expressed in the vocal areas, such as the central nucleus of the lateral nidopallium, the anterior arcopallium, the oval nucleus of the mesopallium, the oval nucleus of the anterior nidopallium and the tracheosyringeal hypoglossal nucleus. With the present data, together with previous reports, it turned out that the androgen receptor expression in telencephalic vocal control areas is similar amongst three groups of vocal learners--songbirds, hummingbirds and parrots, suggesting the possibility that the androgen receptor might play a role in vocal development and that the molecular mechanism regulating the androgen receptor expression in the vocal areas might be important in the evolution of vocal learning.
雄激素受体是一种类固醇激素受体，在鸣禽的发声控制核团中广泛表达。在此，我们分析了幼年和成年虎皮鹦鹉大脑中雄激素受体的表达情况。使用针对虎皮鹦鹉雄激素受体mRNA的物种特异性探针，我们发现雄激素受体在发声区域表达，如外侧巢皮质中央核、前弓状皮质、中脑皮质椭圆形核、前巢皮质椭圆形核和气管舌下神经核。根据目前的数据以及先前的报道，结果表明，在三类发声学习鸟类——鸣禽、蜂鸟和鹦鹉中，端脑发声控制区域的雄激素受体表达相似，这表明雄激素受体可能在发声发育中发挥作用，并且调节发声区域雄激素受体表达的分子机制可能在发声学习的进化中具有重要意义。
