Genomic constrain and plasticity of vocal phenotypes by regulation of allelic imbalance

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25640097
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Genome biology
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Wada Kazuhiro 北海道大学, 理学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (70451408)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): MINETA Katsuhiko 北海道大学, 大学院情報科学研究科, 准教授 (40374615)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 発声学習 / 対立遺伝子不均衡 / ソングバード / ハイブリッド / 種特異的遺伝子発現 / 個体差 / 環境要因 / 遺伝要因

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Both nature and nurture influence the learning process. Birdsong is a learned vocal behavior that is regulated by species-specific genetic constraints and individual hearing experience. However, how and when genetic and environmental instructions contribute to modulate vocal learning is not well known. In this study, we developed hybrid songbirds, whose parental species sing different species-specific songs. The hybrid songbirds showed the full-spectrum of variability of song features of parental species. Based on this behavioral data, we further performed next-generation sequence (RNA-seq) from two brain areas related to regulation of song patterns. Then, we found species-specific SNPS and genes which were differently regulated in the brain areas between two parental species and hybrids. We are further working on the studying the allelic imbalance of the species-specifically regulated genes.

Free Research Field

行動神経生物学