title: Agonistic interactions elicit rapid changes in brain nonapeptide levels in zebrafish.
abstract: The teleost fish nonapeptides, arginine vasotocin (AVT) and isotocin (IT), have been implicated in the regulation of social behavior. These peptides are expected to be involved in acute and transient changes in social context, in order to be efficient in modulating the expression of social behavior according to changes in the social environment. Here we tested the hypothesis that short-term social interactions are related to changes in the level of both nonapeptides across different brain regions. For this purpose we exposed male zebrafish to two types of social interactions: (1) real opponent interactions, from which a Winner and a Loser emerged; and (2) mirror-elicited interactions, that produced individuals that did not experience a change in social status despite expressing similar levels of aggressive behavior to those of participants in real-opponent fights. Non-interacting individuals were used as a reference group. Each social phenotype (i.e. Winners, Losers, Mirror-fighters) presented a specific brain profile of nonapeptides when compared to the reference group. Moreover, the comparison between the different social phenotypes allowed to address the specific aspects of the interaction (e.g. assessment of opponent aggressive behavior vs. self-assessment of expressed aggressive behavior) that are linked with neuropeptide responses. Overall, agonistic interactions seem to be more associated with the changes in brain AVT than IT, which highlights the preferential role of AVT in the regulation of aggressive behavior already described for other species.
authors.affiliation: ISPA - Instituto Universitário, Rua Jardim do Tabaco 34, 1149-041 Lisboa, Portugal; Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Rua da Quinta Grande 6, 2780-156 Oeiras, Portugal; Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Av. Brasília, Doca de Pedrouços, 1400-038 Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Magda C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Teles
authors.affiliation: Genetics and Marine Biotechnology, Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstanców Warszawy 55 st, 81-712 Sopot, Poland.
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gozdowska
authors.affiliation: Genetics and Marine Biotechnology, Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstanców Warszawy 55 st, 81-712 Sopot, Poland.
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kalamarz-Kubiak
authors.affiliation: Genetics and Marine Biotechnology, Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstanców Warszawy 55 st, 81-712 Sopot, Poland.
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kulczykowska
authors.affiliation: ISPA - Instituto Universitário, Rua Jardim do Tabaco 34, 1149-041 Lisboa, Portugal; Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Rua da Quinta Grande 6, 2780-156 Oeiras, Portugal; Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Av. Brasília, Doca de Pedrouços, 1400-038 Lisboa, Portugal. Electronic address: ruiol@ispa.pt.
authors.forename: Rui F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Oliveira
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D008297:Male; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D014668:Vasotocin / Q000378:metabolism*; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D010121:Oxytocin; C008215:isotocin; D014668:Vasotocin
keywords: Aggression; Arginine vasotocin; Isotocin; Social dominance; Stress