title: An Examination of Dynamic Gene Expression Changes in the Mouse Brain During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period.
abstract: The developmental transition to motherhood requires gene expression changes that alter the brain to drive the female to perform maternal behaviors. We broadly examined the global transcriptional response in the mouse maternal brain, by examining four brain regions: hypothalamus, hippocampus, neocortex, and cerebellum, in virgin females, two pregnancy time points, and three postpartum time points. We find that overall there are hundreds of differentially expressed genes, but each brain region and time point shows a unique molecular signature, with only 49 genes differentially expressed in all four regions. Interestingly, a set of "early-response genes" is repressed in all brain regions during pregnancy and postpartum stages. Several genes previously implicated in underlying postpartum depression change expression. This study serves as an atlas of gene expression changes in the maternal brain, with the results demonstrating that pregnancy, parturition, and postpartum maternal experience substantially impact diverse brain regions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida State University, College of Medicine, Tallahassee, Florida 32306 Department of Computer Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306.
authors.forename: Surjyendu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida State University, College of Medicine, Tallahassee, Florida 32306.
authors.forename: Ruei-Ying
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Tzeng
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida State University, College of Medicine, Tallahassee, Florida 32306.
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: DiCarlo
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida State University, College of Medicine, Tallahassee, Florida 32306.
authors.forename: Joseph L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Bundy
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida State University, College of Medicine, Tallahassee, Florida 32306.
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vied
authors.affiliation: Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306 Department of Computer Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306.
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tyson
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida State University, College of Medicine, Tallahassee, Florida 32306 michelle.arbeitman@med.fsu.edu Richard.Nowakowski@med.fsu.edu.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nowakowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida State University, College of Medicine, Tallahassee, Florida 32306 Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306 michelle.arbeitman@med.fsu.edu Richard.Nowakowski@med.fsu.edu.
authors.forename: Michelle N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Arbeitman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D019052:Depression, Postpartum / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D063990:Gene Ontology; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D010641:Phenotype; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011247:Pregnancy; D059467:Transcriptome
keywords: Genetics of Sex; RNA-seq; gene expression; mouse; parturition; postpartum; pregnancy