Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2011 Jan 7;404(1):453-7. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2010.11.143. Epub 2010 Dec 5.
Immediate-early genes (IEGs) are useful for mapping active brain regions in various vertebrates. Here we identified a c-fos homologue gene in medaka and demonstrated that the amounts of c-fos transcripts and proteins in the medaka brain increased in relation to an artificially evoked seizure, suggesting that the homologue gene has the characteristics of IEGs, which are used as markers of neural activity. Next, quantitative reverse-transcription-polymerase chain reaction revealed that female mating behaviors upregulated c-fos transcription in some brain regions including the telencephalon, optic tectum, and cerebellum. In addition, we performed in situ hybridization with a c-fos intron probe to detect the de novo synthesis of c-fos transcripts and confirmed induction of c-fos transcription in these brain regions after mating. This is the first report of IEG induction in response to mating stimuli in teleost fish. Our results indicated that c-fos expression was induced in response to behavioral stimuli in the medaka brain and that medaka c-fos could be a useful marker of neural activity.
立即早期基因（IEGs）可用于绘制各种脊椎动物中活跃的脑区图谱。在这里，我们在斑马鱼中鉴定出了一个 c-fos 同源基因，并证明了斑马鱼脑中 c-fos 转录本和蛋白质的含量随着人为诱发的癫痫发作而增加，这表明同源基因具有 IEG 的特征，可作为神经活动的标志物。接下来，定量逆转录聚合酶链反应显示，雌性交配行为上调了包括端脑、视顶盖和小脑在内的一些脑区中的 c-fos 转录。此外，我们使用 c-fos 内含子探针进行原位杂交，以检测 c-fos 转录本的从头合成，并在交配后确认这些脑区中 c-fos 转录的诱导。这是首次在硬骨鱼中报道 IEG 对交配刺激的诱导。我们的结果表明，c-fos 在斑马鱼脑中对行为刺激的反应而被诱导，并且斑马鱼 c-fos 可能是神经活动的有用标志物。
