spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

First published online September 5, 2008
Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 3041-3056 (2008)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2008
doi: 10.1242/jeb.018242
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplementary Material
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Related articles in JEB
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Renn, S. C. P.
Right arrow Articles by Hofmann, H. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Renn, S. C. P.
Right arrow Articles by Hofmann, H. A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Fish and chips: functional genomics of social plasticity in an African cichlid fish

Susan C. P. Renn*, Nadia Aubin-Horth{dagger} and Hans A. Hofmann{ddagger}

Harvard University, Bauer Center for Genomics Research, 7 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

{ddagger} Author for correspondence at current address: The University of Texas at Austin, Section of Integrative Biology, Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, 1 University Station–C0930, Austin, TX 78712, USA (e-mail: hans{at}mail.utexas.edu)

Accepted 15 July 2008

Behavior and physiology are regulated by both environment and social context. A central goal in the study of the social control of behavior is to determine the underlying physiological, cellular and molecular mechanisms in the brain. The African cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni has long been used as a model system to study how social interactions regulate neural and behavioral plasticity. In this species, males are either socially dominant and reproductively active or subordinate and reproductively suppressed. This phenotypic difference is reversible. Using an integrative approach that combines quantitative behavioral measurements, functional genomics and bioinformatic analyses, we examine neural gene expression in dominant and subordinate males as well as in brooding females. We confirm the role of numerous candidate genes that are part of neuroendocrine pathways and show that specific co-regulated gene sets (modules), as well as specific functional gene ontology categories, are significantly associated with either dominance or reproductive state. Finally, even though the dominant and subordinate phenotypes are robustly defined, we find a surprisingly high degree of individual variation in the transcript levels of the very genes that are differentially regulated between these phenotypes. The results of the present study demonstrate the molecular complexity in the brain underlying social behavior, identify novel targets for future studies, validate many candidate genes and exploit individual variation in order to gain biological insights.

Key words: cichlid, microarray, social behavior, behavior, plasticity


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?

Related articles in JEB:

IDENTIFYING GENE MODULES THAT SHAPE CICHLID SOCIETY
Kathryn Phillips
JEB 2008 211: i. [Full Text]  



This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Integr. Comp. Biol.Home page
C. D. Hulsey and S. C. P. Renn
Genomics and vertebrate adaptive radiation: A celebration of the first cichlid genome
Integr. Comp. Biol., December 1, 2009; 49(6): 613 - 617.
[Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Integr. Comp. Biol.Home page
C. D. Hulsey
Cichlid genomics and phenotypic diversity in a comparative context
Integr. Comp. Biol., December 1, 2009; 49(6): 618 - 629.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Integr. Comp. Biol.Home page
H. E. Machado, A. A. Pollen, H. A. Hofmann, and S. C.P. Renn
Interspecific profiling of gene expression informed by comparative genomic hybridization: A review and a novel approach in African cichlid fishes
Integr. Comp. Biol., December 1, 2009; 49(6): 644 - 659.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Integr. Comp. Biol.Home page
S. C. P. Renn, J. B. Carleton, H. Magee, M. L. T. Nguyen, and A. C. W. Tanner
Maternal care and altered social phenotype in a recently collected stock of Astatotilapia burtoni cichlid fish
Integr. Comp. Biol., December 1, 2009; 49(6): 660 - 673.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc R Soc BHome page
S. Currie, S. LeBlanc, M. A. Watters, and K. M. Gilmour
Agonistic encounters and cellular angst: social interactions induce heat shock proteins in juvenile salmonid fish
Proc R Soc B, November 18, 2009; (2009) rspb.2009.1562v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Integr. Comp. Biol.Home page
R. F. Oliveira
Social behavior in context: Hormonal modulation of behavioral plasticity and social competence
Integr. Comp. Biol., October 1, 2009; 49(4): 423 - 440.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Exp. Biol.Home page
K. Phillips
IDENTIFYING GENE MODULES THAT SHAPE CICHLID SOCIETY
J. Exp. Biol., September 15, 2008; 211(18): i - ii.
[Full Text] [PDF]


© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2008