Seasonal Variation of Myostatin Gene Expression in Pectoralis Muscle of House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) Is Consistent with a Role in Regulating Thermogenic Capacity and Cold Tolerance

2009 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Swanson ◽  
Boris Sabirzhanov ◽  
Amanda VandeZande ◽  
Timothy G. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Seasonal Variation ◽  
Cold Tolerance ◽  
Passer Domesticus ◽  
Pectoralis Muscle ◽  
House Sparrows ◽  
Myostatin Gene ◽  
Thermogenic Capacity

scholarly journals Epigenetic potential affects immune gene expression in house sparrows

2021 ◽  
Vol 224 (6) ◽  
pp. jeb238451
Author(s):  
Haley E. Hanson ◽  
Cedric Zimmer ◽  
Bilal Koussayer ◽  
Aaron W. Schrey ◽  
J. Dylan Maddox ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Natural Infection ◽  
Passer Domesticus ◽  
Immune Gene ◽  
Toll Like Receptor ◽  
Toll Like Receptor 4 ◽  
House Sparrows ◽  
Native Birds ◽  
Fine Tune ◽  
Increase Gene Expression

ABSTRACTEpigenetic mechanisms may play a central role in mediating phenotypic plasticity, especially during range expansions, when populations face a suite of novel environmental conditions. Individuals may differ in their epigenetic potential (EP; their capacity for epigenetic modifications of gene expression), which may affect their ability to colonize new areas. One form of EP, the number of CpG sites, is higher in introduced house sparrows (Passer domesticus) than in native birds in the promoter region of a microbial surveillance gene, Toll-like Receptor 4 (TLR4), which may allow invading birds to fine-tune their immune responses to unfamiliar parasites. Here, we compared TLR4 gene expression from whole blood, liver and spleen in house sparrows with different EP, first challenging some birds with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), to increase gene expression by simulating a natural infection. We expected that high EP would predict high inducibility and reversibility of TLR4 expression in the blood of birds treated with LPS, but we did not make directional predictions regarding organs, as we could not repeatedly sample these tissues. We found that EP was predictive of TLR4 expression in all tissues. Birds with high EP expressed more TLR4 in the blood than individuals with low EP, regardless of treatment with LPS. Only females with high EP exhibited reversibility in gene expression. Further, the effect of EP varied between sexes and among tissues. Together, these data support EP as one regulator of TLR4 expression.

DNA methylation predicts immune gene expression in introduced house sparrows Passer domesticus

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly J. Kilvitis ◽  
Aaron W. Schrey ◽  
Alexandria K. Ragsdale ◽  
Alejandro Berrio ◽  
Steve M. Phelps ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Passer Domesticus ◽  
Immune Gene ◽  
House Sparrows ◽  
Immune Gene Expression

scholarly journals Songbird frequency selectivity and temporal resolution vary with sex and season

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1751) ◽  
pp. 20122296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan D. Gall ◽  
Therese S. Salameh ◽  
Jeffrey R. Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Seasonal Variation ◽  
Breeding Season ◽  
Temporal Resolution ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Seasonal Changes ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Passer Domesticus ◽  
Frequency Selectivity ◽  
House Sparrows ◽  
Concomitant Reduction

Many species of songbirds exhibit dramatic seasonal variation in song output. Recent evidence suggests that seasonal changes in auditory processing are coincident with seasonal variation in vocal output. Here, we show, for the first time, that frequency selectivity and temporal resolution of the songbird auditory periphery change seasonally and in a sex-specific manner. Male and female house sparrows ( Passer domesticus ) did not differ in their frequency sensitivity during the non-breeding season, nor did they differ in their temporal resolution. By contrast, female house sparrows showed enhanced frequency selectivity during the breeding season, which was matched by a concomitant reduction of temporal resolution. However, males failed to show seasonal plasticity in either of these auditory properties. We discuss potential mechanisms generating these seasonal patterns and the implications of sex-specific seasonal changes in auditory processing for vocal communication.

scholarly journals Constitutive gene expression differs in three brain regions important for cognition in neophobic and non-neophobic house sparrows (Passer domesticus)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine R Lattin ◽  
Tosha R Kelly ◽  
Kevin M Johnson ◽  
Morgan W Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Brain Region ◽  
Serotonin Receptor ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Passer Domesticus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Differentially Expressed ◽  
Neural Function ◽  
House Sparrows

Neophobia (aversion to new objects, food, and environments) is a personality trait that affects the ability of wildlife to adapt to new challenges and opportunities. Despite the ubiquity and importance of this trait, the molecular mechanisms underlying repeatable individual differences in neophobia in wild animals are poorly understood. We evaluated wild-caught house sparrows (Passer domesticus) for neophobia in the lab using novel object tests. We then selected the most and least neophobic individuals (n=3 of each) and extracted RNA from four brain regions involved in learning, memory, threat perception, and executive function: striatum, dorsomedial hippocampus, medial ventral arcopallium, and caudolateral nidopallium (NCL). Our analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) used 11,889 gene regions annotated in the house sparrow reference genome for which we had an average of 25.7 million mapped reads/sample. PERMANOVA identified significant effects of brain region, phenotype (neophobic vs. non-neophobic), and a brain region by phenotype interaction. Comparing neophobic and non-neophobic birds revealed constitutive differences in DEGs in three of the four brain regions examined: hippocampus (12% of the transcriptome significantly differentially expressed), striatum (4%) and NCL (3%). DEGs included important known neuroendocrine mediators of learning, memory, executive function, and anxiety behavior, including serotonin receptor 5A, dopamine receptors 1, 2 and 5 (downregulated in neophobic birds), and estrogen receptor beta (upregulated in neophobic birds). These results suggest that some of the behavioral differences between phenotypes may be due to underlying gene expression differences in the brain. The large number of DEGs in neophobic and non-neophobic birds also implies that there are major differences in neural function between the two phenotypes that could affect a wide variety of behavioral traits beyond neophobia.

scholarly journals Surveillance for microbes and range expansion in house sparrows

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1774) ◽  
pp. 20132690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn B. Martin ◽  
Courtney A. C. Coon ◽  
Andrea L. Liebl ◽  
Aaron W. Schrey
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Passer Domesticus ◽  
Physiological Mechanisms ◽  
House Sparrows ◽  
Inflammatory Gene Expression ◽  
High Resource ◽  
Model Selection Approach ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Lps Treatment ◽  
Coccidian Infection

Interactions between hosts and parasites influence the success of host introductions and range expansions post-introduction. However, the physiological mechanisms mediating these outcomes are little known. In some vertebrates, variation in the regulation of inflammation has been implicated, perhaps because inflammation imparts excessive costs, including high resource demands and collateral damage upon encounter with novel parasites. Here, we tested the hypothesis that variation in the regulation of inflammation contributed to the spread of house sparrows ( Passer domesticus ) across Kenya, one of the world's most recent invasions of this species. Specifically, we asked whether inflammatory gene expression declines with population age (i.e. distance from Mombasa (dfM), the site of introduction around 1950). We compared expression of two microbe surveillance molecules (Toll-like receptors, TLRs-2 and 4) and a proinflammatory cytokine (interleukin-6, IL-6) before and after an injection of an immunogenic component of Gram-negative bacteria (lipopolysaccharide, LPS) among six sparrow populations. We then used a best-subset model selection approach to determine whether population age (dfM) or other factors (e.g. malaria or coccidian infection, sparrow density or genetic group membership) best-explained gene expression. For baseline expression of TLR-2 and TLR-4 , population age tended to be the best predictor with expression decreasing with population age, although other factors were also important. Induced expression of TLRs was affected by LPS treatment alone. For induced IL-6 , only LPS treatment reliably predicted expression; baseline expression was not explained by any factor. These data suggest that changes in microbe surveillance, more so than downstream control of inflammation via cytokines, might have been important to the house sparrow invasion of Kenya.

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