ALERT: This system is being upgraded on Tuesday December 12. It will not be available
for use for several hours that day while the upgrade is in progress. Deposits to DukeSpace
will be disabled on Monday December 11, so no new items are to be added to the repository
while the upgrade is in progress. Everything should be back to normal by the end of
day, December 12.
Interspecies avian brain chimeras reveal that large brain size differences are influenced by cell-interdependent processes.
Abstract
Like humans, birds that exhibit vocal learning have relatively delayed telencephalon
maturation, resulting in a disproportionately smaller brain prenatally but enlarged
telencephalon in adulthood relative to vocal non-learning birds. To determine if this
size difference results from evolutionary changes in cell-autonomous or cell-interdependent
developmental processes, we transplanted telencephala from zebra finch donors (a vocal-learning
species) into Japanese quail hosts (a vocal non-learning species) during the early
neural tube stage (day 2 of incubation), and harvested the chimeras at later embryonic
stages (between 9-12 days of incubation). The donor and host tissues fused well with
each other, with known major fiber pathways connecting the zebra finch and quail parts
of the brain. However, the overall sizes of chimeric finch telencephala were larger
than non-transplanted finch telencephala at the same developmental stages, even though
the proportional sizes of telencephalic subregions and fiber tracts were similar to
normal finches. There were no significant changes in the size of chimeric quail host
midbrains, even though they were innervated by the physically smaller zebra finch
brain, including the smaller retinae of the finch eyes. Chimeric zebra finch telencephala
had a decreased cell density relative to normal finches. However, cell nucleus size
differences between each species were maintained as in normal birds. These results
suggest that telencephalic size development is partially cell-interdependent, and
that the mechanisms controlling the size of different brain regions may be functionally
independent.
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9302Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1371/journal.pone.0042477Publication Info
Chen, Chun-Chun; Balaban, Evan; & Jarvis, Erich D (2012). Interspecies avian brain chimeras reveal that large brain size differences are influenced
by cell-interdependent processes. PLoS One, 7(7). pp. e42477. 10.1371/journal.pone.0042477. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9302.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
More Info
Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Erich David Jarvis
Adjunct Professor in the Deptartment of Neurobiology
Dr. Jarvis' laboratory studies the neurobiology of vocal communication. Emphasis is
placed on the molecular pathways involved in the perception and production of learned
vocalizations. They use an integrative approach that combines behavioral, anatomical,
electrophysiological and molecular biological techniques. The main animal model used
is songbirds, one of the few vertebrate groups that evolved the ability to learn vocalizations.
The generality of the discoveries is tested in other vocal lear

Articles written by Duke faculty are made available through the campus open access policy. For more information see: Duke Open Access Policy
Rights for Collection: Scholarly Articles
Works are deposited here by their authors, and represent their research and opinions, not that of Duke University. Some materials and descriptions may include offensive content. More info