Baseline corticosterone is associated with parental care in virgin Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica)

Bruijn, Robert de; Wright-Lichter, Jessica; Khoshaba, Edena; Holloway, Faith; Lopes, Patrícia C.

doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104781

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…One study in mice and zebrafish found increased neural expression of this gene in males exposed to aggressive social encounters [39]. As we do observe aggression towards chicks in control males [5], differences in BTG2 may be linked to aggressive interactions in our study.…”

Section: (A) How Does Sensitization Modify Neural Responses?supporting

confidence: 68%

“…The other one revealed that urocortin-3 expressing neurons in the perifornical area of the hypothalamus are activated specifically during infant-directed aggression in both male and female mice and that optogenetic activation of these neurons triggers infantdirected aggression and neglect [29]. Given that we observed a reduction in aggression towards chicks after the sensitization procedure [5], urocortin-3 may have an opposing effect on infant-directed aggressive behaviour in our system or serve different functions that support parental care, such as altered feeding patterns [30,31].…”

Section: (A) How Does Sensitization Modify Neural Responses?mentioning

confidence: 66%

“…Japanese quail ( Coturnix japonica ) were raised in the lab from eggs obtained from AA Lab Eggs, Inc. (Westminster, CA) following the procedures described in [12]. Adult birds used in this experiment were kept in an 8L:16D light cycle, at a temperature range of 20-24 °C and maintained in groups of 4-5 same sex animals in cages (100 × 40 × 50 cm).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In total, 77 chicks were used. Behaviours towards chicks within the 20 min period of observation were scored by observers blind to the treatment and analysed as described in [12]. The behavioural results described here were re-plotted from [12] and were not re-analysed.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using a sensitization procedure developed by [11], a recent experiment by our group confirmed that it is possible to induce parental behaviours in Japanese quail through a single overnight exposure to chicks [12]. After the sensitization procedure, both sexes display chick brooding behaviour and reduced aggression towards chicks (pecking behaviour).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Brain transcriptomic changes in Japanese quail reveal roles for neurotensin and urocortin 3 in avian parental care

Lopes

Bruijn

2020

Preprint

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For many species, parental care critically affects offspring survival. But what drives animals to display parental behaviours towards young? In mammals, pregnancy-induced physiological transformations seem key in preparing the neural circuits that lead towards attraction (and reduced-aggression) to young. Beyond mammalian maternal behaviour, knowledge of the neural mechanisms that underlie parental care is severely lacking. We took advantage of a domesticated bird species, the Japanese quail, for which parental behaviour towards chicks can be induced through a sensitization procedure, a process that is not effective in all animals. We used the variation in parental responses to study neural transcriptomic changes associated with the sensitization procedure itself, with the outcome of the procedure (i.e., presence of parental behaviours) and with spontaneous parental care (i.e., in the absence of sensitization). Out of the brain regions studied, we found that most differences in gene expression were located in the hypothalamus. Our results highlight several molecular pathways that may contribute to the modulation of avian parental care. We identified one gene, neurotensin, that was previously only demonstrated to be causally associated with parental care in mammals. Our work opens new avenues of research into understanding the neural basis of parental care in non-mammalian species.

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Section: (A) How Does Sensitization Modify Neural Responses?supporting

confidence: 68%