Link to bioRxiv paper:

http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.08.05.237586v1?rss=1

Authors: Trieu-Duc, V., Iwasaki, Y., Oshima, K., Nikaido, M., Chiu, M.-T., Okada, N.

Abstract:

Territorial defense involves frequent aggressive confrontations with competitors, but little is known about how brain-transcriptomic profiles change between individuals competing for territory establishment. Our previous study elucidated that brain-transcriptomic synchronization occurs in a pair-specific manner between two males of the fish Betta splendens during fighting, reflecting a mutual assessment process between them at the level of gene expression. Here we evaluated how the brain-transcriptomic profiles of opponents change immediately after shifting their social status (i.e., the winner/loser has emerged) and 30 min after this shift. We showed that unique and carryover hypotheses can be adapted to this system, in which changes in the expression of certain genes are unique to different fighting stages and in which the expression patterns of certain genes are transiently or persistently changed across all fighting stages. Interestingly, the specificity of the brain-transcriptomic synchronization of a pair during fighting was gradually lost after fighting ceased, because of the decrease in the variance in gene expression across all individuals, leading to the emergence of a basal neurogenomic state. Strikingly, this unique state was more basal than the state that existed in the before-fighting group and resulted in the reduced and consistent expression of genes across all individuals. In spite of the consistent and basal overall gene expression in each individual in this state, expression changes for genes related to metabolism, learning and memory, and autism still differentiated losers from winners. The fighting system using male B. splendens thus provides a promising platform for investigating neurogenomic states of aggression in vertebrates.

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