Fatherhood alters gene expression within the MPOA

Abstract

Abstract:Female parenting is obligate in mammals, but fathering behavior among mammals is rare.Only 3-5% of mammalian species exhibit biparental care, including humans, and mechanisms of fathering behavior remain sparsely studied. However, in species where it does exist, paternal care is often crucial to the survivorship of offspring. The present study is the first to identify new gene targets involved in the regulation of fathering behavior in a biparental species using RNA sequencing. In order to determine the pattern of gene expression within the medial preoptic area that is specifically associated with fathering behavior, we identified differentially expressed genes in male prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) that experienced one of three social conditions: virgin males, pair bonded males, and males with fathering experience. Differentially expressed genes from each comparison (i.e., Virgin vs Paired, Virgin vs Fathers, and Paired vs Fathers) were evaluated using the Gene Ontology enrichment analysis, and Kegg pathways analysis to reveal metabolic pathways associated with specific differentially expressed genes. Using these tools, we identified a group of genes that are differentially expressed in voles with different amounts of social experience. These genes are involved in a variety of processes, with particular enrichment in genes associated with immune function, metabolism, synaptic plasticity, and the remodeling of dendritic spines. The identification of these genes and processes will lead to novel insights into the biological basis of fathering behavior.

Effects of pairing on color change and central gene expression in lined seahorses

“…Perhaps most interesting is the overlap in gene expression change induced by pairing in both male seahorses (this study) and the MPOA and NAcc of male prairie voles 61 . The RRHO approach allows for an unbiased comparison between genes of interest that are found in different regions and/or species 16,63,64 .…”

“…It is designed to be used to compare gene expression both between species and between studies, 63,64 and has recently been used to compare gene expression in multiple monogamous species in order to suggest genes that may be conserved across phylogenies 16 . In this analysis, we compared differentially expressed genes in lined seahorses to data from a previous study where we examined gene expression in male prairie voles that had experienced one of three parenting conditions: virgin males, paired males and males with fathering experience 61 . We also compared both seahorse and prairie vole MPOA gene expression data to gene expression from a previously published prairie vole study, 62 which contained publicly available data from the NAcc of male prairie voles that had experienced 3 weeks of cohabitation with a partner (3 W) 62 compared to males that cohabitated with a same‐sex sibling (SN).…”

“…We also compared both seahorse and prairie vole MPOA gene expression data to gene expression from a previously published prairie vole study, 62 which contained publicly available data from the NAcc of male prairie voles that had experienced 3 weeks of cohabitation with a partner (3 W) 62 compared to males that cohabitated with a same‐sex sibling (SN). We chose to compare the PM versus UPM seahorse data against the virgin versus paired male prairie vole MPOA data 61 and the SN versus 3 W vole NAcc data, 62 as these subjects experienced the most analogous experimental conditions. For each species, the differentially expressed genes were placed in rank‐order based on log‐fold change of expression.…”

“…We compared orthologous gene expression between the medial preoptic area (MPOA) of unpaired and paired male prairie voles, 61 the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) of unpaired and 3‐week paired male prairie voles, 62 and the whole brains of unpaired and paired male seahorses, using the Rank–Rank Hypergeometric Overlap (RRHO) algorithm. This approach identifies differentially expressed genes in a sample, ranks them in a list according to their log‐fold change, and then compares that ranked list to lists from other datasets.…”

Hypothalamus volume in men: Investigating associations with paternal status, self-reported caregiving beliefs, and adult attachment style

“…Of note, two studies that compared paternal and non-paternal male California mice found no difference in morphometry of the medial preoptic region of the hypothalamus (Gubernick et al, 1993;Horrell et al, 2019). However, this does not preclude morphometric differences between father and non-fathers in other areas of the hypothalamus, especially given that parenthood induced changes in hypothalamic cells include an upregulation of gene expression related to plasticity (Seelke et al, 2018). Overall, the hypothalamus appears to be an important structure underlying both maternal and paternal caregiving.…”