School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA.
Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Genes Brain Behav. 2021 Sep;20(7):e12753. doi: 10.1111/gbb.12753. Epub 2021 Jun 2.
Species with multimodal communication integrate information from social cues in different modalities into behavioral responses that are mediated by changes in gene expression in the brain. Differences in patterns of gene expression between signal modalities may shed light on the neuromolecular mechanisms underlying multisensory processing. Here, we use RNA-Seq to analyze brain transcriptome responses to either chemical or visual social signals in a territorial lizard with multimodal communication. Using an intruder challenge paradigm, we exposed 18 wild-caught, adult, male Sceloporus jarrovii to either male conspecific scents (femoral gland secretions placed on a small pebble), the species-specific push-up display (a programmed robotic model), or a control (an unscented pebble). We conducted differential expression analysis with both a de novo S. jarrovii transcriptome assembly and the reference genome of a closely related species, Sceloporus undulatus. Despite some inter-individual variation, we found significant differences in gene expression in the brain across signal modalities and the control in both analyses. The most notable differences occurred between chemical and visual stimulus treatments, closely followed by visual stimulus versus the control. Altered expression profiles could explain documented aggression differences in the immediate behavioral response to conspecific signals from different sensory modalities. Shared differentially expressed genes between visually- or chemically-stimulated males are involved in neural activity and neurodevelopment and several other differentially expressed genes in stimulus-challenged males are involved in conserved signal-transduction pathways associated with the social stress response, aggression and the response to territory intruders across vertebrates.
具有多模态通讯的物种将来自不同模态的社交线索中的信息整合到行为反应中，这些反应是由大脑中基因表达的变化介导的。信号模态之间的基因表达模式的差异可能揭示了多感觉处理的神经分子机制。在这里，我们使用 RNA-Seq 分析了具有多模态通讯的领地蜥蜴对化学或视觉社交信号的大脑转录组反应。使用入侵者挑战范式，我们将 18 只野生捕获的成年雄性蜥蜴暴露于雄性同种气味（放在小卵石上的股腺分泌物）、物种特有的俯卧撑展示（编程机器人模型）或对照（无味卵石）下。我们分别使用从头组装的 S. jarrovii 转录组和密切相关的物种 S. undulatus 的参考基因组进行差异表达分析。尽管存在一些个体间的差异，但我们发现，在两种分析中，大脑中的基因表达在不同的信号模式和对照之间存在显著差异。最显著的差异发生在化学刺激和视觉刺激之间，其次是视觉刺激与对照之间。改变的表达谱可以解释从不同感觉模态的同种信号中记录到的即时行为反应中的攻击性差异。视觉或化学刺激雄性之间共享的差异表达基因参与神经活动和神经发育，而受刺激雄性中的其他几个差异表达基因则参与与社会应激反应、攻击性和对脊椎动物领地入侵者的反应有关的保守信号转导途径。
