Corticosterone is correlated to mediators of neural plasticity and epigenetic potential in the hippocampus of Senegalese house sparrows (Passer domesticus).
Gen Comp Endocrinol
; 269: 177-183, 2018 12 01.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30257180
ABSTRACT
Our previous research on range-expanding house sparrows in Kenya revealed that (i) range-edge birds released more corticosterone (CORT) in response to a stressor than range-core birds, ii) that range-edge birds were more exploratory than range-core birds, and that (iii) all birds exhibited extensive variation in genome-wide DNA methylation among individuals, regardless of their position along the range expansion. Within the hippocampus, mediators of neural plasticity such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), can influence and be influenced by CORT, hippocampus-associated behaviors and regulatory epigenetic modification enzymes. Here, we investigated whether individuals and populations colonizing a new geographic range, Senegal, vary in the expression of BDNF and DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) within the hippocampus and the release of CORT in response to a stressor. DNMT expression is an important mediator of epigenetic potential, the propensity of a genome to capacitate phenotypic variation via mechanisms such as DNA methylation. We surveyed three populations across Senegal, predicting that hippocampal BDNF and DNMT expression would be highest at the range-edge, and that BDNF and DNMT would be inversely related to one another, but would each positively covary with CORT within individuals. We found a nonlinear relationship between CORT and BDNF expression within individuals. Moreover, we found that CORT positively covaried with DNMT1 expression in a more recently established population, while the reverse was true in the oldest population (i.e. at the range-core). Our study is among the first to explore whether and how variation in CORT regulation contributes to variation in mediators of neural plasticity and epigenetic potential within the hippocampus of a range-expanding vertebrate.
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Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Corticosterona
/
Pardais
/
Epigenômica
/
Hipocampo
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Plasticidade Neuronal
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Animals
País/Região como assunto:
Africa
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2018
Tipo de documento:
Article