Taeniopygia guttata Transcriptome or Gene expression
Birdsong from mature male zebra finches are a well-established learned behavior that is continually refined and supported by dedicated brain nuclei homologous to human vocal control regions. The transition between young adult, middle age, and old age is marked by changes in song patterns that are consistent with the breathy, disordered voice detected in aged humans. The singing-associated gene network is located in the basal ganglia nucleus Area X of zebra finch brains. The area X region of young (~243-294 days post hatch), middle-aged (~675-898 days post hatch) and old male birds (~1215-1402 days post hatch) were collected either after a period of active singing or quiet and total RNA isolated from the samples (n=36 finches). The RNA was used to prepare paired-end Illumina libraries with 490 nt length inserts and sequenced on an Illumina NovaSeq 6000.