Distress call-induced gene expression in the brain of the Indian short-nosed fruit bat, Cynopterus sphinx

Ganesh, Ambigapathy and Raghuram, Hanumanthan and Nathan, Parthasarathy T and Marimuthu, Ganapathy and Rajan, Koilmani Emmanuvel (2010) Distress call-induced gene expression in the brain of the Indian short-nosed fruit bat, Cynopterus sphinx. In: Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 196 (2). pp. 155-164.

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Abstract

Individuals in distress emit audible vocalizations to either warn or inform conspecifics. The Indian short-nosed fruit bat, Cynopterus sphinx, emits distress calls soon after becoming entangled in mist nets, which appear to attract conspecifics. Phase I of these distress calls is longer and louder, and includes a secondary peak, compared to phase II. Activity-dependent expression of egr-1 was examined in free-ranging C. sphinx following the emissions and responses to a distress call. We found that the level of expression of egr-1 was higher in bats that emitted a distress call, in adults that responded, and in pups than in silent bats. Up-regulated cDNA was amplified to identify the target gene (TOE1) of the protein Egr-1. The observed expression pattern Toe1 was similar to that of egr-1. These findings suggest that the neuronal activity related to recognition of a distress call and an auditory feedback mechanism induces the expression of Egr-1. Co-expression of egr-1 with Toe1 may play a role in initial triggering of the genetic mechanism that could be involved in the consolidation or stabilization of distress call memories.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
Publisher:	Springer
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to Springer.
Keywords:	Distress call; Chiroptera; Cynopterus sphinx; egr-1; Toe1
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	09 Feb 2010 11:30
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 05:54
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/25515

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