Meeting Abstract

P2-10   -   Neurogenomic profiles of reproductive behavior in Northern Jacanas Ehrie, AJ*; Lipshutz, SE; Rosvall, KR; Indiana University, Bloomington; Indiana University, Bloomington and Loyola University of Chicago; Indiana University, Bloomington 24ajehrie@gmail.com

Differential selection on the sexes may shape behaviors involved in competition and parental care, along with the neuroendocrine phenotypes that facilitate those behaviors. We examined the extent to which aggression and parenting may be mediated by different neurogenomic mechanisms, by comparing females versus males in the Northern Jacana (Jacana spinosa), a sex-role reversed shorebird. Sex-role reversal stems from a unique case of sexual selection in which females compete for mates and males conduct the majority of parental duties. We found that levels of testosterone in circulation were similar between females and parenting males, and higher in courting males, similar to patterns from species with conventional sex roles. However, testosterone levels did not correlate with aggression for either sex or breeding stage. We hypothesized that sex differences in neural transcriptomic profiles explain sexual dimorphism in behavior. We conducted RNA-Seq in two brain regions within the social behavior network: the nucleus taeniae and preoptic area of the hypothalamus. If female jacanas regulate aggression using conserved mechanisms shared among species with conventional sex roles, we expect to find aggression-related gene regulatory networks enriched for neural sensitivity to sex steroids, along with neurotransmitters like catecholamines and monoamines. Likewise, we expect to find sex and stage-specific differences in the expression of genes that regulate parental care, including galanin, prolactin, and oxytocin. Alternatively,jacanas may regulate aggression and parental care by way of novel mechanisms, and as such, we may identify new candidate genes. Determining the molecular basis for variation in the sex-specific phenotypes is critical to understanding the extent to which selective forces operate on females and males in parallel.