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Shi Z, Zhang Z, Schaffer L, Huang Z, Fu L, Head S, Gaasterland T, Wang X, Li X. Dynamic transcriptome landscape in the song nucleus HVC between juvenile and adult zebra finches. Adv Genet (Hoboken) 2021; 2:e10035. [PMID: 36618441 PMCID: PMC9744550 DOI: 10.1002/ggn2.10035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2019] [Revised: 09/25/2020] [Accepted: 10/15/2020] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Male juvenile zebra finches learn to sing by imitating songs of adult males early in life. The development of the song control circuit and song learning and maturation are highly intertwined processes, involving gene expression, neurogenesis, circuit formation, synaptic modification, and sensory-motor learning. To better understand the genetic and genomic mechanisms underlying these events, we used RNA-Seq to examine genome-wide transcriptomes in the song control nucleus HVC of male juvenile (45 d) and adult (100 d) zebra finches. We report that gene groups related to axon guidance, RNA processing, lipid metabolism, and mitochondrial functions show enriched expression in juvenile HVC compared to the rest of the brain. As juveniles mature into adulthood, massive gene expression changes occur. Expression of genes related to amino acid metabolism, cell cycle, and mitochondrial function is reduced, accompanied by increased and enriched expression of genes with synaptic functions, including genes related to G-protein signaling, neurotransmitter receptors, transport of small molecules, and potassium channels. Unexpectedly, a group of genes with immune system functions is also developmentally regulated, suggesting potential roles in the development and functions of HVC. These data will serve as a rich resource for investigations into the development and function of a neural circuit that controls vocal behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhimin Shi
- Neuroscience Center of ExcellenceLouisiana State University School of MedicineNew OrleansLouisianaUSA
| | - Zeyu Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Genetic Network BiologyInstitute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina,University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
| | | | - Zhi Huang
- Neuroscience Center of ExcellenceLouisiana State University School of MedicineNew OrleansLouisianaUSA
| | - Lijuan Fu
- Neuroscience Center of ExcellenceLouisiana State University School of MedicineNew OrleansLouisianaUSA,Present address:
California Medical Innovations InstituteSan DiegoCaliforniaUSA
| | - Steven Head
- Scripps Research InstituteLa JollaCaliforniaUSA
| | - Terry Gaasterland
- Scripps Research InstituteLa JollaCaliforniaUSA,University of California at San DiegoLa JollaCaliforniaUSA
| | - Xiu‐Jie Wang
- Key Laboratory of Genetic Network BiologyInstitute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina,University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
| | - XiaoChing Li
- Neuroscience Center of ExcellenceLouisiana State University School of MedicineNew OrleansLouisianaUSA
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Endres K. Retinoic Acid and the Gut Microbiota in Alzheimer's Disease: Fighting Back-to-Back? Curr Alzheimer Res 2020; 16:405-417. [PMID: 30907321 DOI: 10.2174/1567205016666190321163705] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2019] [Revised: 03/15/2019] [Accepted: 03/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND There is growing evidence that the gut microbiota may play an important role in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. However, how these commensals influence disease risk and progression still has to be deciphered. OBJECTIVE The objective of this review was to summarize current knowledge on the interplay between gut microbiota and retinoic acid. The latter one represents one of the important micronutrients, which have been correlated to Alzheimer's disease and are used in initial therapeutic intervention studies. METHODS A selective overview of the literature is given with the focus on the function of retinoic acid in the healthy and diseased brain, its metabolism in the gut, and the potential influence that the bioactive ligand may have on microbiota, gut physiology and, Alzheimer's disease. RESULTS Retinoic acid can influence neuronal functionality by means of plasticity but also by neurogenesis and modulating proteostasis. Impaired retinoid-signaling, therefore, might contribute to the development of diseases in the brain. Despite its rather direct impact, retinoic acid also influences other organ systems such as gut by regulating the residing immune cells but also factors such as permeability or commensal microbiota. These in turn can also interfere with retinoid-metabolism and via the gutbrain- axis furthermore with Alzheimer's disease pathology within the brain. CONCLUSION Potentially, it is yet too early to conclude from the few reports on changed microbiota in Alzheimer's disease to a dysfunctional role in retinoid-signaling. However, there are several routes how microbial commensals might affect and might be affected by vitamin A and its derivatives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristina Endres
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany
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Sánchez-Valpuesta M, Suzuki Y, Shibata Y, Toji N, Ji Y, Afrin N, Asogwa CN, Kojima I, Mizuguchi D, Kojima S, Okanoya K, Okado H, Kobayashi K, Wada K. Corticobasal ganglia projecting neurons are required for juvenile vocal learning but not for adult vocal plasticity in songbirds. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:22833-43. [PMID: 31636217 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1913575116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Birdsong, like human speech, consists of a sequence of temporally precise movements acquired through vocal learning. The learning of such sequential vocalizations depends on the neural function of the motor cortex and basal ganglia. However, it is unknown how the connections between cortical and basal ganglia components contribute to vocal motor skill learning, as mammalian motor cortices serve multiple types of motor action and most experimentally tractable animals do not exhibit vocal learning. Here, we leveraged the zebra finch, a songbird, as an animal model to explore the function of the connectivity between cortex-like (HVC) and basal ganglia (area X), connected by HVC(X) projection neurons with temporally precise firing during singing. By specifically ablating HVC(X) neurons, juvenile zebra finches failed to copy tutored syllable acoustics and developed temporally unstable songs with less sequence consistency. In contrast, HVC(X)-ablated adults did not alter their learned song structure, but generated acoustic fluctuations and responded to auditory feedback disruption by the introduction of song deterioration, as did normal adults. These results indicate that the corticobasal ganglia input is important for learning the acoustic and temporal aspects of song structure, but not for generating vocal fluctuations that contribute to the maintenance of an already learned vocal pattern.
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Bazewicz CG, Dinavahi SS, Schell TD, Robertson GP. Aldehyde dehydrogenase in regulatory T-cell development, immunity and cancer. Immunology 2018; 156:47-55. [PMID: 30387499 DOI: 10.1111/imm.13016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2018] [Revised: 10/10/2018] [Accepted: 10/26/2018] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The role of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) in carcinogenesis and resistance to cancer therapies is well known. Mounting evidence also suggests a potentially important role for ALDH in the induction and function of regulatory T (Treg) cells. Treg cells are important cells of the immune system involved in promoting immune tolerance and preventing aberrant immune responses to beneficial or non-harmful antigens. However, Treg cells also impair tumor immunity, leading to the progression of various carcinomas. ALDH expression and the subsequent production of retinoic acid by numerous cells, including dendritic cells, macrophages, eosinophils and epithelial cells, seems important in Treg induction and function in multiple organ systems. This is particularly evident in the gastrointestinal tract, pulmonary tract and skin, which are exposed to a myriad of environmental antigens and represent interfaces between the human body and the outside world. Expression of ALDH in Treg cells themselves may also be involved in the proliferation of these cells and resistance to certain cytotoxic therapies. Hence, inhibition of ALDH expression may be useful to treat cancer. Besides the direct effect of ALDH inhibition on carcinogenesis and resistance to cancer therapies, inhibition of ALDH could potentially augment the immune response to tumor antigens by inhibiting Treg induction, function and ability to promote immune tolerance to tumor cells in multiple cancer types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher G Bazewicz
- College of Medicine, The Pennsylvania State University Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA.,The Penn State Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center, The Pennsylvania State University Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA
| | - Saketh S Dinavahi
- The Penn State Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center, The Pennsylvania State University Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA.,Department of Pharmacology, The Pennsylvania State University Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA
| | - Todd D Schell
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Pennsylvania State University Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA
| | - Gavin P Robertson
- The Penn State Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center, The Pennsylvania State University Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA.,Department of Pharmacology, The Pennsylvania State University Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA.,Department of Pathology, The Pennsylvania State University Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA.,Department of Dermatology, The Pennsylvania State University Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA.,Department of Surgery, The Pennsylvania State University Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA.,Penn State Melanoma Therapeutics Program, The Pennsylvania State University Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA.,Foreman Foundation for Melanoma Research, The Pennsylvania State University Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA
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Negwer M, Schubert D. Talking Convergence: Growing Evidence Links FOXP2 and Retinoic Acid in Shaping Speech-Related Motor Circuitry. Front Neurosci 2017; 11:19. [PMID: 28179876 PMCID: PMC5263127 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2016] [Accepted: 01/10/2017] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Moritz Negwer
- Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and BehaviourNijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Dirk Schubert
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and BehaviourNijmegen, Netherlands
- *Correspondence: Dirk Schubert
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Abstract
Recent research has added new dimensions to our understanding of classical evolution, according to which evolutionary novelties result from gene mutations inherited from parents to offspring. Language is surely one such novelty. Together with specific changes in our genome and epigenome, we suggest that two other (related) mechanisms may have contributed to the brain rewiring underlying human cognitive evolution and, specifically, the changes in brain connectivity that prompted the emergence of our species-specific linguistic abilities: the horizontal transfer of genetic material by viral and non-viral vectors and the brain/immune system crosstalk (more generally, the dialogue between the microbiota, the immune system, and the brain).
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Juan Uriagereka
- Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland College Park, MD, USA
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