Meeting Abstract
P3.11 Monday, Jan. 6 15:30 Social Status Influences Different Modulatory Receptors in the Olfactory Bulb of an African Cichlid Fish FIELD, K.E.*; PRAJAPATI, A.S.; MARUSKA, K.P.; Louisiana State Univ; Univ of Louisiana Monroe; Louisiana State Univ kfield3@tigers.lsu.edu
Neuromodulators such as peptides and biogenic amines can influence processing of behaviorally relevant sensory information, helping an animal integrate the external environment with its internal physiological state. In fishes, olfaction is crucial for behaviors such as feeding, predator avoidance, and reproduction, and olfactory processing may be influenced by modulators. The first-order processing center in the fish brain, the olfactory bulb, receives information from the olfactory epithelium, then sends it to higher brain centers involved in mediating behavioral decisions. Little is known, however, about which modulators might function in the fish olfactory bulb, and whether the relative sensitivity to modulators might differ between animals motivated towards different tasks. We used the highly social African cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni, to test the hypothesis that mRNA levels of several modulatory receptors in the olfactory bulb differed between dominant and subordinate males. Dominant males are territorial and reproductively active, while subordinate males are non-territorial and reproductively suppressed. Using qPCR we demonstrate that dominant males have higher mRNA levels of kisspeptin receptor, dopamine receptors, arginine vasotocin receptor, and neuronal nitric oxide synthase in the olfactory bulbs compared to subordinate males. Modulatory receptors were also positively correlated with gonadosomatic index, suggesting a link between olfactory modulation and reproduction. These results suggest that the olfactory bulbs of dominant males are more sensitive to neuromodulators, which may facilitate detection and fine tune their perception of olfactory signals vital for social assessment during reproductive and territorial interactions.
