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Photoperiodic control of GnRH-I expression in seasonal reproduction of the Eurasian tree sparrow

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Abstract

Day length has been shown to be a major source of temporal information regulating seasonal reproduction in the Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus). The present study aims to investigate the photoperiodic expression of gonadotropin-releasing hormone-I (GnRH-I), and how it mediates seasonal reproduction in male tree sparrows. In different experiments, we studied photoperiod-induced changes in GnRH-I expressing neurons in the hypothalamic preoptic area (POA), together with changes in testicular size under both natural and artificial photoperiodic conditions. Experiment 1, which involved studying changes in GnRH-I expression and testicular volume during different phases of the annual reproductive cycle under natural day length (NDL), revealed that sparrows possess a definite seasonal cycle of GnRH-I peptide expression that runs parallel to testicular size. Birds showed significantly higher levels of GnRH-I expression in the breeding phase when compared to the non-breeding phase. In experiment 2, photosensitive birds were exposed to artificial short (SD: 9L/15D) and long (LD: 14L/10D) day lengths for 240 days to investigate the photoperiodic regulation of GnRH-I expression. They exhibited a significant increase followed by a decrease in GnRH-I expression and testicular size under LD but not SD, suggesting photoperiodic regulation. In experiment 3, when photosensitive birds were exposed to increasing photo-periods (9L/15D, 10L/14D, 10.5L/13.5D, 11L/13D, 12L/12D) for 30 days to find out the critical photoperiod for GnRH-I expression, they responded only when the daily photoperiod was 11 h or more. These results clearly indicate that tree sparrows are capable of fine discrimination of photoperiodic information and use day length for GnRH-I expression to control their seasonal reproduction.

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Acknowledgements

Financial supports from the Department of Biotechnology and Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi are gratefully acknowledged. We are also grateful to Professor Henryk F. Urbanski (Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, Oregon, USA) for kindly providing the rabbit anti-GnRH antibody.

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  1. Department of Zoology, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong-22, Meghalaya, India

    Anand S. Dixit & Sanborlang Byrsat

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Correspondence to Anand S. Dixit.

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Dixit, A.S., Byrsat, S. Photoperiodic control of GnRH-I expression in seasonal reproduction of the Eurasian tree sparrow. Photochem Photobiol Sci 17, 934–945 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1039/c8pp00153g

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