Behavioral and brain- transcriptomic synchronization between the two opponents of a fighting pair of the fish Betta splendens

PLoS Genet. 2020 Jun 17;16(6):e1008831. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008831. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Abstract

Conspecific male animals fight for resources such as food and mating opportunities but typically stop fighting after assessing their relative fighting abilities to avoid serious injuries. Physiologically, how the fighting behavior is controlled remains unknown. Using the fighting fish Betta splendens, we studied behavioral and brain-transcriptomic changes during the fight between the two opponents. At the behavioral level, surface-breathing, and biting/striking occurred only during intervals between mouth-locking. Eventually, the behaviors of the two opponents became synchronized, with each pair showing a unique behavioral pattern. At the physiological level, we examined the expression patterns of 23,306 brain transcripts using RNA-sequencing data from brains of fighting pairs after a 20-min (D20) and a 60-min (D60) fight. The two opponents in each D60 fighting pair showed a strong gene expression correlation, whereas those in D20 fighting pairs showed a weak correlation. Moreover, each fighting pair in the D60 group showed pair-specific gene expression patterns in a grade of membership analysis (GoM) and were grouped as a pair in the heatmap clustering. The observed pair-specific individualization in brain-transcriptomic synchronization (PIBS) suggested that this synchronization provides a physiological basis for the behavioral synchronization. An analysis using the synchronized genes in fighting pairs of the D60 group found genes enriched for ion transport, synaptic function, and learning and memory. Brain-transcriptomic synchronization could be a general phenomenon and may provide a new cornerstone with which to investigate coordinating and sustaining social interactions between two interacting partners of vertebrates.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aggression
  • Animals
  • Behavior Observation Techniques
  • Behavior, Animal / physiology*
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Cooperative Behavior
  • Fishes / physiology*
  • Gene Expression Regulation / physiology*
  • Interpersonal Relations
  • Ion Transport / physiology
  • Learning / physiology
  • Male
  • Memory / physiology
  • RNA-Seq
  • Transcriptome / physiology*
  • Video Recording

Grants and funding

This study was supported by National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Taiwan with support from the Aim for the Top University Project of NCKU (D104-38A05 & D105-38A03) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (NSC 102-2621-B-006-002- and MOST 103-2621-B-006-005-) to N.O. and from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (MOST 107-2311-B-001-016-MY3) to W-H.L. It was also supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, KibanB to N.O. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.