CONTENT - International Society of Zoological Sciences

ICZ2008 – Abstracts S17
The Dynamic epigenome, physiology, behavior and pathology
Moshe Szyf
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University
Montreal Canada
Epigenetic patterns are sculpted during development and shape
the diversity of gene expression programs in the different cell types
of the organism. The epigenome of the developing foetus is
especially sensitive to maternal nutrition, exposure to
environmental toxins as well as psychological stress. Epigenetic
alterations have the same phenotypic consequences as genetic
differences. However, in difference from the genetic sequence,
which is fixed, the epigenetic profile is somewhat dynamic. Thus,
the responsivity of the epigenome to the environment continues
throughout life. Exposure of the young rodent pup to different
intensities of maternal care, differentially affects the epigenome
and the behavior of the pup into adulthood. We will propose here
a mechanism linking behavioral exposures such as maternal
behavior and epigenetic programming. This mechanism illustrates
a possible conduit between the external environment and the
epigenome, which could explain epigenetic programming early in
life as well as its dynamic nature throughout life. We will discuss
the prospect that similar epigenetic variations laid down during
early life play a role in generating inter individual differences in
human behavior and we will present data from different human
cohorts. We will illustrate how early childhood experience is
marked in humans the brain and in blood cells. In summary, we
propose that the epigenome mediates between the dynamic
environment and our static genomes and provides a molecular link
between nurture and nature between the social and chemical
environment and phenotype.
Control of female pheromones in Drosophila melanogaster
Claude Wicker-Thomas
Legs, UPR 9034, 91198 Gif sur Yvette, France
Drosophila melanogaster produces sexually dimorphic
pheromones, with C23 and C25 monoenes produced in males and
C27 and C29 dienes produced in females. We have molecularly
and functionally characterized the genes involved in their
biosynthesis and have begun the study of their regulation. Female
pheromones are controlled by hormones (ecdysone) and
neurotransmitters (dopamine), which act on the second
desaturation step leading to dienes. No such control has been
evidenced in males. Here we review how this control can be
exerted and present data on pheromones and courtship behaviour.
Conditional response of feeding on zebra fish (Danio rerio)
Zhongneng Xu
Institute of Hydrobiology, Jinan University, 510632, Guangzhou, P
R China
Conditional response of feeding on zebra fish (Danio rerio) was
investigated under laboratory conditions. Different light colors,
different training time, and different levels of progesterone and MS-
222 were set in this experiment. Conditional response of feeding
on zebra fish - the fish swimming to the light side - induced by light
can be established in two weeks. Red light affected more
significantl! y the fish conditional response than yellow light and
blue light. The male fish swam faster than females in the groups
exposed to progesterone. In the treatments of adding MS-222,
males’ speeds were also faster than females’ without photic
stimulation and similar to females’ if photic stimulation was
performed, but the speeds of both females and males were slower
than those in treatments without MS-222. Additionally, another
conditional response of feeding on zebra fish - the fish swimming
to the side opposite to the light when it was turned on - induced by
light could also be established.
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Wing loading adjustment in mallards (Anas platyrhynchos): a
generalization of the mass starvation predation risk theory in
large birds?
Cédric Zimmer, Mathieu Boos, Odile Petit and Jean-Patrice Robin
Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Département Ecologie
Physiologie Ethologie, UMR 7178 CNRS/ULP, associé à
l’Université Henri Poincaré - Nancy 1, 23 rue Becquerel, 67087
Strasbourg Cedex 2, France
In passerine birds, body reserves are optimized to minimize
starvation and predation risks. To check this theory in larger birds
with different body fuel storage strategies and higher starvation
capacities, two groups of mallards (G1, G2) maintained in outdoor
aviaries were disturbed (respectively 2x15 and 4x20 min daily) at
one-month intervals during one-week sessions with a radiocontrolled
car. Birds’ take-off flights, body mass, food intake and
wing loading data were recorded and compared to an undisturbed
control group. The number of take-offs was similar between
successive sessions (P>0.5) and sexes (P>0.45), but was two-fold
higher in G2 than in G1 (P