Abstract
Emberizid sparrows (emberizidae) have played a prominent role in the study of avian vocal communication and social behavior. We present here brain transcriptomes for three emberizid model systems, song sparrow Melospiza melodia, white-throated sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis, and Gambel’s white-crowned sparrow Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii. Each of the assemblies covered fully or in part, over 89% of the previously annotated protein coding genes in the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata, with 16,846, 15,805, and 16,646 unique BLAST hits in song, white-throated and white-crowned sparrows, respectively. As in previous studies, we find tissue of origin (auditory forebrain versus hypothalamus and whole brain) as an important determinant of overall expression profile. We also demonstrate the successful isolation of RNA and RNA-sequencing from post-mortem samples from building strikes and suggest that such an approach could be useful when traditional sampling opportunities are limited. These transcriptomes will be an important resource for the study of social behavior in birds and for data driven annotation of forthcoming whole genome sequences for these and other bird species.
Highlights
The comparative method, broadly speaking, is a powerful approach for understanding adaptations including behavior and central control of physiological responses to environmental change
Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping studies have recently revealed the genetic architecture of burrowing behavior in Peromyscus mice (Weber, Peterson & Hoekstra, 2013)
Prior to analysis we determined the morph of each bird sampled using a modification of Michopoulos et al (2007), which is based on the identification of a morph-specific SNP present in the vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) gene
Summary
The comparative method, broadly speaking, is a powerful approach for understanding adaptations including behavior and central control of physiological responses to environmental change. Natural variation in behavior among species has been used in various taxonomic groups to begin to unravel the molecular underpinnings of animal. Among these comparative studies of behavior, different strategies and technologies have been deployed in order to gain an understanding of the proximate mechanisms at play. Experimental hormonal manipulations and gene sequence comparisons in different species of Microtus voles led to insights into the mechanisms of parental care (Young et al, 1999). Phylogenetic analyses of rates of molecular evolution based on transcriptomes in eusocial and solitary bees has led to insights into potential underpinnings of social behavior variation (Woodard et al, 2011)
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