2008 Eighth Annual Beckman Scholars Symposium
Beckman Scholars Presentations
Saturday, July 29, 2006

The neuropeptide arginine-vasotocin (VT) and its mammalian homologue arginine-vasopressin (AVP) are well-known for their involvement in regulating a diverse range of social behaviors across vertebrate species. One nonmammalian vertebrate model system used to study VT is the goldfish (Carassius auratus), a social teleost fish in which VT has been shown to inhibit a characteristic social approach behavior. This study used 5'RACE, 3'RACE, and standard PCR amplification to determine the goldfish VT receptor (VTR) gene sequence. A "canonical" ~2000-base pair goldfish VTR sequence was amplified that is highly conserved with several teleost and mammalian G-protein coupled vasopressin V1a and vasotocin receptors. Interestingly, two "truncated" VTR sequences that are about 90% identical to the canonical sequence were also amplified, one truncated at the 3' end and one at the 5' end. These truncated versions of the goldfish VTR may indicate a novel mechanism in vertebrate tetraploids that regulates expression of canonical G-protein coupled receptors via gene duplication, similar to a splice variant-mediated regulatory mechanism observed in mammals. Quantitative expression studies will be used to determine whether there is a relationship between expression patterns of these VTR transcripts in the goldfish brain and individual differences in social behavior. Ultimately, this work could contribute to research linking vasopressin family receptor distribution patterns to intraspecific variation in social behavior, and may shed more light on our understanding of the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying human social behavior.