Evidence for conflict at the molecular level, and a possible solution to it - gene regulation. Gasterosteus aculeatus

We investigated the transcriptomic response to courtship opportunity in four regions of the brain (telencephalon, diencephalon, cerebellum and brain stem) of a teleost fish, the threespined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). We tested the hypothesis that gene regulatory networks modulate the transcriptional response tocourtship opportunity in the different brain regions and thereby mating. Indeed, transcription regulatory network analysis identified cis-regulatory transcription factor motifs enriched in upregulated genes in one brain region and downregulated in the others. We further validated our findings by qPCR. Overall design: 2 conditions: control fish and fish that were presented a female on their territory, Biological replicates 6. Four brain regions.