雄鼠社会优势地位相关的信息素及其表观遗传的机制

Many rodent species lives in a hierarchal social group of conspecies, where dominant males emit social odor more attarctive to females and have higher reproductive success and paternity rates than suborinate males do. However,in burrow-living and nocturnal small rodents, the work on the mechanisms underlying social hierarchies is diffcult to run in nature.In the current proposals, we are palnning to mainly utilize laboratory mice (Mus musculus) with known genetic backgrounds and genome data as animal models, integrate behavioral tests with the methods including chemistry,next generation sequencing, molecular biology, protein and so on and focus our studies on (1) chemical components of social domiance-related odorant signals, the interactions between urine-borne organic volatiles and major urine proteins (MUPs); (2) social status-induced differnetiation in blood hormones such as testosterones and corticorsterone and its regulation of social dominance-related chemical signals; (3) inetractions between social interaction and gene expression in some organs such as frontal cortex and hippocampus; (4)heritability of aggression, social dominance and chemical signals, and its epigenetic regulation; (5) the contribution of social dominance-related chemical signals to reproducitve success and paternity.We aimed at elucidating the mechanisms underlying the social dominance chemical signal production and its effects on fitness of the fathered offspring. 4-6 high quality papers involved in the project are expected to publish and 4-5 graduate students and postdoctors are going to be trained.

很多啮齿动物存在社会等级结构，优势雄性释放的气味对雌性吸引力更强，常常有高的繁殖成功和父权机会。但是在穴居的夜行性鼠类中，很多有关社会等级行为机制的研究难于在野外开展。本项目拟利用遗传背景清楚和基因组数据等完善的实验室纯品小鼠（小家鼠）等为主要研究对象，将行为学、化学、高通量测序、分子生物学、蛋白质等技术相结合，主要研究(1)优势地位尿液化学信号的组成，挥发性信号和蛋白(MUPs)信号的相互关系;(2)社会等级导致的内分泌分化是否对优势化学信号的产生有效调控作用;(3)社会等级的分化与基因表达变化和生理质量的关系;(4)攻击、社会地位及其相关化学信号的遗传特点及表观遗传学的调控作用；(5)化学信号的分化对优势雄鼠繁殖成功中的贡献率。总的目标是阐明社会优势地位相关的化学信号形成机制和对后代适合度影响的特征及遗传机理。本项目计划发表高质量英文文章4-6篇，培养研究生和博士后3-5名。

雄性之间的优势从属关系及其相关特征通常是可遗传的，并对动物的性选择有影响。特别是，社会支配地位及其相关的雄性信息素在近交小鼠中是可遗传的; 因此，DNA甲基化水平改变而导致的表观遗传变化可能影响了遗传。我们使用C57BL / 6雄性小鼠通过慢性二元遭遇建立了社会支配-从属关系，这种关系及其行为表现和信息素的含量在它们的后代中表现出相应的特征，表明了可遗传性。通过转录组测序和两代精子的全基因组DNA甲基化分析，我们发现许多基因的差异甲基化是由雄鼠的社会优势-从属关系诱导的，并且可以传递给后代。这些甲基化基因主要与生长发育过程、神经发育和细胞运输有关，在全基因组甲基化/亚硫酸氢盐测序中具有相似功能的基因的表达也通过社会优势 - 从属关系进行区分。特别是，调节神经信号传导的基因Dennd1a在优势-从属建立前后在成对雄性的精子和内侧前额叶皮层中差异甲基化和表达，这表明潜在的表观遗传控制和遗传社会优势相关攻击。我们认为，社会优势可能通过精子DNA甲基化传递给男性后代，并且这些差异可能通过影响神经系统的发育来影响后代的男性竞争。毕业博士研究生3名，在读博士生4名，在读硕士生3名。