Título : Brain and circulating steroids in an electric fish: Relevance for non-breeding aggression
Autor(es) : Lucia Zubizarreta
Cecilia Jalabert
Ana C Silva
Kiran K Soma
Laura Quintana
Fecha de publicación : 10-oct-2023
Tipo de publicación: Artículo
Versión: Publicado
Publicado por: PLoS
Publicado en: PLoS ONE
Areas del conocimiento : Ciencias Naturales y Exactas
Ciencias Biológicas
Otras Ciencias Naturales
Otros descriptores : neurosteroids
Resumen : Steroids play a crucial role in modulating brain and behavior. While traditionally it is thought that the brain is a target of sex steroids produced in endocrine glands (e.g. gonads), the brain itself produces steroids, known as neurosteroids. Neurosteroids can be produced in regions involved in the regulation of social behaviors and may act locally to regulate social behaviors, such as reproduction and aggression. Our model species, the weakly electric fish Gymnotus omarorum, displays non-breeding aggression in both sexes. This is a valuable natural behavior to understand neuroendocrine mechanisms that differ from those underlying breeding aggression. In the non-breeding season, circulating sex steroid levels are low, which facilitates the study of neurosteroids. Here, for the first time in a teleost fish, we used liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to quantify a panel of 8 steroids in both plasma and brain to characterize steroid profiles in wild non-breeding adult males and females. We show that: 1) systemic steroid levels in the non-breeding season are similar in both sexes, although only males have detectable circulating 11-ketotestosterone, 2) brain steroid levels are sexually dimorphic, as females display higher levels of androstenedione, testosterone and estrone, and only males had detectable 11-ketotestosterone, 3) systemic androgens such as androstenedione and testosterone in the non-breeding season are potential precursors for neuroestrogen synthesis, and 4) estrogens, which play a key role in non-breeding aggression, are detectable in the brain (but not the plasma) in both sexes. These data are consistent with previous studies of G. omarorum that show non-breeding aggression is dependent on estrogen signaling, as has also been shown in bird and mammal models. Overall, our results provide a foundation for understanding the role of neurosteroids, the interplay between central and peripheral steroids and potential sex differences in the regulation of social behaviors.
URI / Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12381/3548
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289461
Institución responsable del proyecto: MEC
UDELAR
Financiadores: Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación
Universidad de la República
Identificador ANII: FCE_1_2018_1_136381
POS_NAC_2014_1_102353
POS_EXT_2016_1_134441
Nivel de Acceso: Acceso abierto
Licencia CC: Reconocimiento 4.0 Internacional. (CC BY)
Aparece en las colecciones: Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable

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