The Social Brain: Transcriptome Assembly and Characterization of the Hippocampus from a Social Subterranean Rodent, the Colonial Tuco-Tuco (Ctenomys sociabilis)

Elucidating the genetic mechanisms that underlie complex adaptive phenotypes is a central problem in evolutionary biology. For behavioral biologists, the ability to link variation in gene expression to the occurrence of specific behavioral traits has long been a largely unobtainable goal. Social interactions with conspecifics represent a fundamental component of the behavior of most animal species. Although several studies of mammals have attempted to uncover the genetic bases for social relationships using a candidate gene approach, none have attempted more comprehensive, transcriptome-based analyses using high throughout sequencing. As a first step toward improved understanding of the genetic underpinnings of mammalian sociality, we generated a reference transcriptome for the colonial tuco-tuco (Ctenomys sociabilis), a social species of subterranean rodent that is endemic to southwestern Argentina. Specifically, we analyzed over 500 million Illumina sequencing reads derived from the hippocampi of 10 colonial tuco-tucos housed in captivity under a variety of social conditions. The resulting reference transcriptome provides a critical tool for future studies aimed at exploring relationships between social environment and gene expression in this non-model species of social mammal.阐明支撑复杂适应性表型的遗传机制，是进化生物学领域的核心研究问题。对于行为生物学家而言，将基因表达变异与特定行为性状的出现建立关联，长期以来始终是一个难以企及的目标。与同种个体的社会互动，是多数动物物种行为的基本组成部分。尽管已有多项哺乳动物研究尝试通过候选基因法揭示社会关系的遗传基础，但尚未有研究采用高通量测序开展更为全面的转录组学分析。作为加深对哺乳动物社会性遗传基础理解的首要步骤，我们为群居栉鼠（Ctenomys sociabilis）构建了参考转录组——该物种是一种分布于阿根廷西南部的社会性地下啮齿类。具体而言，我们分析了来自10只圈养群居栉鼠海马体的超过5亿条Illumina测序读段，这些个体处于多种不同的社会环境条件下。最终获得的参考转录组，将为未来探索这种社会性非模式哺乳动物的社会环境与基因表达之间关联的研究提供关键工具。