DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Hormonal Regulation of Avian Biparental Care

论文研究：鸟类双亲护理的激素调节

• 批准号: 1501336
• 负责人: Elizabeth Adkins-Regan
• 金额: $ 1.93万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-15 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1501336&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Hormonal; Regulation; Avian

Parental care is an important component of reproduction that is observed in a diverse range of animals and is especially common in birds. The neural and hormonal basis of avian parental care is not well understood, especially in the many birds where young are raised by both mothers and fathers working together. The hormone prolactin has a well-established role in maternal care in mammals, and so prolactin and its brain receptors are a promising candidate mechanism of parental care to investigate in birds. The goal of this research is to experimentally test for a causal role of prolactin in promoting the onset of parental behavior in a biparental songbird, the zebra finch. This research will provide new insight into the mechanisms of avian parental care, allowing the integration of this important group into the comparative framework that will provide the predictive power for understanding how these mechanisms may function and evolve in other animals, including humans. The project will contribute to the scientific training of undergraduates, including women and underrepresented minorities. Additionally, the results will be promptly published in journals accessed by a broad audience of researchers, presented at national meetings, and disseminated to the public through a website and outreach programs for middle school girls. The researchers determined that circulating prolactin (PRL) is significantly higher in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) during late incubation and early post-hatching care compared to other times in the breeding cycle. To test the hypothesis that PRL plays a causal role in promoting the onset of parental behavior, they will perform two experiments testing the effect of suppressing the normal peak in PRL during late stage incubation in breeding birds, and experimentally increasing PRL in paired, but non-breeding, birds given foster chicks. Parental behavior will be recorded in the nests with small video cameras. To confirm that the treatments have the predicted effect on PRL concentrations, plasma will be assayed before and after treatment using a validated ELISA. On the last day of treatment brains will be collected to determine the effect on central PRL-mediated cell signaling via the PRL receptor using immunohistochemistry. All recordings and data in digital form will be archived at Cornell University to allow public access using the archiving services of the CU Library.

父母照顾是繁殖的一个重要组成部分，在各种动物中都能观察到，在鸟类中尤其常见。鸟类父母照料的神经和荷尔蒙基础还不是很清楚，特别是在许多鸟类中，幼鸟是由父母共同抚养的。催乳素在哺乳动物的母性照料中具有广泛的作用，因此催乳素及其脑受体是研究鸟类父母照料的一种很有前途的候选机制。这项研究的目的是在实验上测试催乳素在促进双亲鸣鸟斑马雀父母行为开始方面的因果作用。这项研究将为鸟类父母照料的机制提供新的见解，允许将这一重要群体整合到比较框架中，该框架将为理解这些机制如何在包括人类在内的其他动物中发挥作用和进化提供预测能力。该项目将有助于对包括妇女和代表性不足的少数群体在内的本科生进行科学培训。此外，研究结果将迅速发表在广大研究人员访问的期刊上，在全国会议上展示，并通过一个网站和针对中学女孩的外联计划向公众传播。研究人员确定，在孵化后期和孵化后早期护理期间，斑纹雀(Taeniopygia Guttata)的循环催乳素(PRL)水平明显高于繁殖周期的其他时间。为了验证PRL在促进父母行为开始方面起到因果作用的假设，他们将进行两个实验，以测试在繁殖雏鸟的后期孵化过程中抑制PRL正常峰值的效果，以及在给予寄养雏鸟的配对但非繁殖的雏鸟中实验增加PRL的效果。父母的行为将被记录在鸟巢中，用小型摄像机。为了确认这些治疗对PRL浓度具有预期的效果，将在治疗前后使用经过验证的ELISA法对血浆进行检测。在治疗的最后一天，将收集大脑，用免疫组织化学方法确定PRL受体对中枢PRL介导的细胞信号的影响。所有数字形式的记录和数据都将在康奈尔大学存档，以便公众使用CU图书馆的存档服务。