2025-03-12 アリゾナ大学
<関連情報>
- https://news.arizona.edu/news/vocal-changes-birds-may-predict-age-related-disorders-people-study-finds
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0197458025000260?dgcid=author
正常な老化は、発声行動に特化したゼブラフィンチ大脳基底核の遺伝子ネットワークの劣化をもたらす Normative aging results in degradation of gene networks in a zebra finch basal ganglia nucleus dedicated to vocal behavior
Charles M. Higgins, Sri Harsha Vishwanath, Fiona M. McCarthy, Michelle L. Gordon, Beate Peter, Julie E. Miller
Neurobiology of Aging Available online: 12 February 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2025.02.002
Graphical abstract
Highlights
- Vocal behavior is a reliable biomarker to measure the impact of aging.
- Zebra finches are advantageous for studying the aging brain and vocalizations.
- Male finch song nucleus Area X was biopsied across adult ages for RNA sequencing.
- Gene network analyses reveals degraded gene modules and hubs with aging.
Abstract
Aging increases brain susceptibility to neurodegenerative diseases, but the mechanisms are not clear. Vocal behavior provides an accessible, reliable, and sensitive biomarker to address this because voice changes in middle age can be early indicators of neurodegenerative diseases. The adult male zebra finch is an excellent model organism for these studies due to well-characterized vocal brain circuitry and strong homology to human brain centers. We performed RNA sequencing of song-dedicated basal ganglia nucleus Area X followed by weighted gene co-expression network analyses to examine changes in gene patterns across younger adult, middle, and older ages. Song-correlated gene networks degrade with age, with modules losing their coherence and migrating to different sets of genes, and changes in connection strength particularly for hub genes including those associated with human speech, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s diseases. Gene pathway enrichment analyses reveal a lack of ongoing metabolic and biogenic processes in older finches. Our findings provide a robust platform for targeting network hubs in the treatment of neurologically driven human vocal disorders.
