Meeting Abstract

53.4  Sunday, Jan. 5 14:15  RAPID CHANGES IN GENE EXPRESSION WITHIN THE HYPOTHALAMO-PITUITARY-GONAD AXIS IN FEMALE EUROPEAN STARLINGS. PERFITO, N.*; GUARDADO, D.; BENTLEY, G.E.; Univ of California, Berkeley nperfito@berkeley.edu

Producing fertile eggs requires that mates have functional gametes simultaneously. Prior to fertilization, female birds’ ovarian follicles must form a pre-ovulatory hierarchy and accumulate sufficient amounts of yolk. Birds use behavioral displays and courtship behavior to synchronize internal physiology between pair members; these interactions are particularly important for fertilization. We recently demonstrated that female starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) deprived of physical access to a mate dramatically slowed follicle maturation and expression of genes regulating vitellogenesis compared females with mates. Further we showed that reproductively delayed females could quickly stimulate follicle development and yolking with seven days of de novo access to males. Seven days is a short time, but it has not been clear exactly how rapidly the female reproductive axis can be stimulated in response to the presence of a mate. In the present study, we attempt to pin-point rapid changes in gene expression along the reproductive axis after only 46 hours of de novo access to males. These data will determine critical points of transduction of environmental cues into the physiological reproductive response. We will test changes in expression for genes already known to play a key role in reproductive activation as well as novel candidate genes identified by RNAseq analysis. These data will help to illuminate how females orchestrate the decision to begin egg-laying; a critical but largely ignored component of reproductive success.