Searching the Resource Information Network

Our searching services are busy right now. Please try again later

  • Register
X
Forgot Password

If you have forgotten your password you can enter your email here and get a temporary password sent to your email.

X

Leaving Community

Are you sure you want to leave this community? Leaving the community will revoke any permissions you have been granted in this community.

No
Yes

Molecular microcircuitry underlies functional specification in a basal ganglia circuit dedicated to vocal learning.

Austin T Hilliard | Julie E Miller | Elizabeth R Fraley | Steve Horvath | Stephanie A White
Neuron | 2012

Similarities between speech and birdsong make songbirds advantageous for investigating the neurogenetics of learned vocal communication--a complex phenotype probably supported by ensembles of interacting genes in cortico-basal ganglia pathways of both species. To date, only FoxP2 has been identified as critical to both speech and birdsong. We performed weighted gene coexpression network analysis on microarray data from singing zebra finches to discover gene ensembles regulated during vocal behavior. We found ∼2,000 singing-regulated genes comprising three coexpression groups unique to area X, the basal ganglia subregion dedicated to learned vocalizations. These contained known targets of human FOXP2 and potential avian targets. We validated biological pathways not previously implicated in vocalization. Higher-order gene coexpression patterns, rather than expression levels, molecularly distinguish area X from the ventral striato-pallidum during singing. The previously unknown structure of singing-driven networks enables prioritization of molecular interactors that probably bear on human motor disorders, especially those affecting speech.

Pubmed ID: 22325205

Associated grants

  • Agency: NIMH NIH HHS, United States
    Id: F31 MH082533
  • Agency: NIMH NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01 MH070712
  • Agency: NIMH NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01 MH070712-05
  • Agency: NICHD NIH HHS, United States
    Id: T32 HD007228

Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.

This is a list of tools and resources that we have found mentioned in this publication.


CRAN (tool)

RRID:SCR_003005

Network of ftp and web servers around world that store identical, up to date, versions of code and documentation for R. Package archive network for R programming language.

View all literature mentions

NCBI BLAST (tool)

RRID:SCR_004870

Web search tool to find regions of similarity between biological sequences. Program compares nucleotide or protein sequences to sequence databases and calculates statistical significance. Used for identifying homologous sequences.

View all literature mentions

UCSC Genome Browser (tool)

RRID:SCR_005780

Portal to interactively visualize genomic data. Provides reference sequences and working draft assemblies for collection of genomes and access to ENCODE and Neanderthal projects. Includes collection of vertebrate and model organism assemblies and annotations, along with suite of tools for viewing, analyzing and downloading data.

View all literature mentions

Songbird Brain Transcriptome Database (tool)

RRID:SCR_006182

Database containing cDNA clone information of the brains of songbirds. These clones are annotated with behavioral information, as well as links to information of homologous genes of other species. The database includes over 91,000 zebra finch brain cDNAs (2009) sequenced by Duke, ESTIMA, and Rockefeller research groups. The project is a collaborative effort of the Jarvis Laboratory of Duke University, Duke Bioinformatics, and The Genomics group of RIKEN, with Erich D. Jarvis as P.I. and Kazuhiro Wada as Co-P.I. Microarrays with the cDNAs in this database are available at Duke http://mgm.duke.edu/genome/dna_micro/core/spotted.htm and through the NIH Neurosciences Microarray Consortium http://arrayconsortium.tgen.org/np2/public/overview.jsp

View all literature mentions

Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder (tool)

RRID:SCR_007198

Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. The latest release of Audacity is 1.3.12 (Beta). This is their active work in progress version with their latest features. Documentation and translations into different languages are not quite complete. They recommend this version for more advanced users, and for everyone on Windows 7, Windows Vista and Mac OS X 10.6. See New Features in 1.3 for more information about the 1.3 Beta series. You can use Audacity to: Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs. Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files. Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together. Change the speed or pitch of a recording. And more See the complete list of features. Sponsors: This resource is supported by UmixIt Technologies, LLC. Keywords: Software, Recording, Audio, Sound, Editor, Recorder,

View all literature mentions

Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) (tool)

RRID:SCR_007303

Functional genomics data repository supporting MIAME-compliant data submissions. Includes microarray-based experiments measuring the abundance of mRNA, genomic DNA, and protein molecules, as well as non-array-based technologies such as serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) and mass spectrometry proteomic technology. Array- and sequence-based data are accepted. Collection of curated gene expression DataSets, as well as original Series and Platform records. The database can be searched using keywords, organism, DataSet type and authors. DataSet records contain additional resources including cluster tools and differential expression queries.

View all literature mentions