title: Synapsin IIb as a functional marker of submissive behavior.
abstract: Dominance and submissiveness are important functional elements of the social hierarchy. By employing selective breeding based on a social interaction test, we developed mice with strong and stable, inheritable features of dominance and submissiveness. In order to identify candidate genes responsible for dominant and submissive behavior, we applied transcriptomic and proteomic studies supported by molecular, behavioral and pharmacological approaches. We clearly show here that the expression of Synapsin II isoform b (Syn IIb) is constitutively upregulated in the hippocampus and striatum of submissive mice in comparison to their dominant and wild type counterparts. Moreover, the reduction of submissive behavior achieved after mating and delivery was accompanied by a marked reduction of Syn IIb expression. Since submissiveness has been shown to be associated with depressive-like behavior, we applied acute SSRI (Paroxetine) treatment to reduce submissiveness in studied mice. We found that reduction of submissive behavior evoked by Paroxetine was paired with significantly decreased Syn IIb expression. In conclusion, our findings indicate that submissiveness, known to be an important element of depressive-like behavioral abnormalities, is strongly linked with changes in Syn IIb expression.
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Molecular Biology. Ariel University, Ariel. Israel [2] Faculty of Life Sciences. Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan. Israel.
authors.forename: Elimelech
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nesher
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology. Ariel University, Ariel. Israel.
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Koman
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology. Ariel University, Ariel. Israel.
authors.forename: Moshe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology. Ariel University, Ariel. Israel.
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tikhonov
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology. Ariel University, Ariel. Israel.
authors.forename: Maryia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bairachnaya
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology. Ariel University, Ariel. Israel.
authors.forename: Mali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salmon-Divon
authors.affiliation: de Botton Institute for Protein Profiling, The Nancy and Stephen Grand Israel National Center for Personalized Medicine. Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot. Israel.
authors.forename: Yishai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Levin
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology. Ariel University, Ariel. Israel.
authors.forename: Gabi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gerlitz
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv. Israel [2] Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv. Israel.
authors.forename: Izhak
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Michaelevski
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Sciences. Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan. Israel.
authors.forename: Gal
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yadid
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology. Ariel University, Ariel. Israel.
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pinhasov
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000378:metabolism; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D015536:Down-Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D017374:Paroxetine / Q000494:pharmacology; D040901:Proteomics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D016704:Synapsins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D016704:Synapsins; D017374:Paroxetine