AI Article Synopsis

  • The hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis is crucial for reproduction and sexual behaviors, and this study looks closely at its activity in rock doves (Columba livia).
  • Researchers found that the pituitary gland shows greater sex-biased gene expression than the hypothalamus, with males having more genes linked to secretion and females having more genes tied to reproduction and development.
  • The study emphasizes the importance of considering sex differences in future research on reproduction and identifies new gene targets that could reshape our understanding of HPG function.

Article Abstract

The hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis is a key biological system required for reproduction and associated sexual behaviors to occur. In the avian reproductive model of the rock dove (Columba livia), we characterized the transcript community of each tissue of the HPG axis in both sexes, thereby significantly expanding our mechanistic insight into HPG activity. We report greater sex-biased differential expression in the pituitary as compared to the hypothalamus, with multiple genes more highly expressed in the male pituitary being related to secretory function, and multiple genes more highly expressed in the female pituitary being related to reproduction, growth, and development. We report tissue-specific and sex-biased expression in genes commonly investigated when studying reproduction, highlighting the need for sex parity in future studies. In addition, we uncover new targets of investigation in both sexes, which could potentially change our understanding of HPG function.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5394691PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep45125DOI Listing

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