Meeting Abstract
Astatotilapia burtoni is a model organism for the study of metabolic dysregulation and starvation behaviors. This model is particularly interesting because while mouthbrooding, females undergo a self-induced starvation that represents a physiological adaptation in that the neural regulation differs from that associated with simple food deprivation. Prior research shows that differential expression of genes involved in neuropeptide signaling between brain regions may account for self-induced starvation behaviors in brooding A. burtoni. To study this, mRNA must be extracted and compared between brain regions; however, precise methods such as laser capture microdissection sacrifice RNA quality. We aimed to optimize a technique that isolates discrete brain regions while preserving mRNA integrity. Brain punches isolated using our modified Cresyl-staining technique had significantly higher RIN values than whole-brain tissue isolated and stored in RNALater, and non-significantly higher RIN values than unstained control punches. These refinements offer a potentially more effective way of studying mRNA expression from small target regions.
