California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.
PLoS One. 2012;7(9):e45524. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0045524. Epub 2012 Sep 25.
Elucidating the genetic mechanisms that underlie complex adaptive phenotypes is a central problem in evolutionary biology. For behavioral biologists, the ability to link variation in gene expression to the occurrence of specific behavioral traits has long been a largely unobtainable goal. Social interactions with conspecifics represent a fundamental component of the behavior of most animal species. Although several studies of mammals have attempted to uncover the genetic bases for social relationships using a candidate gene approach, none have attempted more comprehensive, transcriptome-based analyses using high throughout sequencing. As a first step toward improved understanding of the genetic underpinnings of mammalian sociality, we generated a reference transcriptome for the colonial tuco-tuco (Ctenomys sociabilis), a social species of subterranean rodent that is endemic to southwestern Argentina. Specifically, we analyzed over 500 million Illumina sequencing reads derived from the hippocampi of 10 colonial tuco-tucos housed in captivity under a variety of social conditions. The resulting reference transcriptome provides a critical tool for future studies aimed at exploring relationships between social environment and gene expression in this non-model species of social mammal.
阐明复杂适应表型的遗传机制是进化生物学的核心问题。对于行为生物学家来说，将基因表达的变化与特定行为特征的发生联系起来的能力一直是一个难以实现的目标。与同物种的社会互动是大多数动物物种行为的基本组成部分。尽管一些哺乳动物的研究试图通过候选基因方法揭示社会关系的遗传基础，但没有一项研究试图使用高通量测序进行更全面的基于转录组的分析。作为提高对哺乳动物社会性遗传基础理解的第一步，我们为群居的毛丝鼠（Ctenomys sociabilis）生成了一个参考转录组，毛丝鼠是一种生活在阿根廷西南部的地下啮齿动物，具有群居性。具体来说，我们分析了来自 10 只群居毛丝鼠的超过 5 亿个 Illumina 测序reads，这些毛丝鼠在各种社会条件下被圈养在一个栖息地中。由此产生的参考转录组为未来的研究提供了一个关键工具，旨在探索这种非模型社会性哺乳动物的社会环境与基因表达之间的关系。
