School of Pharmacy, Kitasato University, Tokyo, Japan; School of Life Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan; Department of Life Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology, Nagahama, Japan.
Gene. 2021 Jun 5;784:145601. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2021.145601. Epub 2021 Mar 23.
Territorial defense involves frequent aggressive confrontations with competitors, but little is known about how brain-transcriptomic profiles change between individuals competing for territory establishment. Our previous study elucidated that when two fish Betta splendens males interact, transcriptomes across their brains synchronize in a way that reflects a mutual assessment process between them at the gene expression level. Here we aim to evaluate how the brain-transcriptomic profiles of opponents change immediately after shifting their social status (i.e., the winner/loser has emerged) and 30 min after this shift. We showed that changes in the expression of certain genes are unique to different fighting stages and the expression patterns of certain genes are transiently or persistently changed across all fighting stages. These brain transcriptomic responses are in accordance with behavioral changes across the fight. Strikingly, the specificity of the brain-transcriptomic synchronization of a pair during fighting was gradually lost after fighting ceased, leading to the emergence of a basal neurogenomic state in which the changes in gene expression were reduced to minimum and consistent across all individuals. This state shares common characteristics with the hibernation state that animals adopt to minimize their metabolic rates to save energy. Interestingly, expression changes for genes related to metabolism, autism spectrum disorder, and long-term memory still differentiated losers from winners. Together, the fighting system using male B. splendens provides a promising platform for investigating neurogenomic states of aggression in vertebrates.
领地防御涉及与竞争者频繁的侵略性对抗，但对于个体在争夺领地建立过程中大脑转录组谱如何变化知之甚少。我们之前的研究阐明了当两条雄性斗鱼相互作用时，它们大脑中的转录组以一种在基因表达水平上反映它们之间相互评估过程的方式同步。在这里，我们旨在评估对手的大脑转录组谱在改变其社会地位（即胜者/败者出现）后立即以及在此改变后 30 分钟会发生怎样的变化。我们发现，某些基因表达的变化是特定于不同战斗阶段的，而某些基因的表达模式在所有战斗阶段都是短暂或持久变化的。这些大脑转录组反应与整个战斗过程中的行为变化一致。引人注目的是，一对鱼在战斗中大脑转录组同步的特异性在战斗停止后逐渐丧失，导致出现一个基础神经基因组状态，其中基因表达的变化减少到最低，并在所有个体中保持一致。这种状态与动物为了节省能量而采用的最小化代谢率的冬眠状态具有共同特征。有趣的是，与代谢、自闭症谱系障碍和长期记忆相关的基因的表达变化仍然可以将失败者与胜利者区分开来。总的来说，使用雄性斗鱼的战斗系统为研究脊椎动物攻击的神经基因组状态提供了一个有前途的平台。
