Quantifying over expression of FoxP2 in the brain of budgerigars using immunohistochemistry

The gene FoxP2 is believed to have a significant role in the vocal circuit pathway in humans and other vocal learning taxa. We wanted to understand the role that FoxP2 plays in the ability to have vocal plasticity in parrots. We hypothesized that manipulating levels of expression of the FoxP2 gene in the brain of a Budgerigar would affect the degree of vocal plasticity in the parrots. Specifically, we predicted that inserting a viral vector containing FoxP2 into the vocal learning center MMst would result in over Expression of FoxP2 and a decrease in vocal plasticity relative to birds that received a control vector containing GFP. One crucial step is to assess the efficacy of our experimental is measuring FoxP2 levels on the targeted region of the Budgerigar brain. We used immunohistochemistry to attach antibodies with fluorescence, that then bonded to cells expressing FoxP2 in the experimental birds. Our results show that manipulations were successful and that both viral vectors showed uptake in the brain cells, with increased FoxP2 expression in the MMst of treated animals relative to surrounding untreated striatal tissue. These results lend credence to behavioral measures showing that the FoxP2 manipulated birds had lower levels of call sharing than controls. Our results shed light on the neurogenetic mechanisms underlying the impressive vocal plasticity seen in parrots and have the potential to contribute to therapies for the speech deficits seen in some patients with PTSD, stroke or cochlear implants. Support or Funding Information National Institute of Health, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Discovery Scholars program at NMSU