Decoding Molecular Bases of Rodent Social Hetero-Grooming Behavior Using in Silico Analyses and Bioinformatics Tools

Anastasia M Moskalenko; Aleksey N Ikrin; Alena V Kozlova; Radmir R Mukhamadeev; Murilo S de Abreu; Vyacheslav Riga; Tatiana O Kolesnikova; Allan V Kalueff

doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2024.06.004

Decoding Molecular Bases of Rodent Social Hetero-Grooming Behavior Using in Silico Analyses and Bioinformatics Tools

Neuroscience. 2024 Aug 30:554:146-155. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2024.06.004. Epub 2024 Jun 13.

Authors

Anastasia M Moskalenko¹, Aleksey N Ikrin¹, Alena V Kozlova², Radmir R Mukhamadeev³, Murilo S de Abreu⁴, Vyacheslav Riga⁵, Tatiana O Kolesnikova⁵, Allan V Kalueff⁶

Affiliations

¹ Graduate Program in Genetics and Genetic Technologies, Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sochi 354340, Russia; Neuroscience Department, Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sochi 354340, Russia.
² Graduate Program in Genetics and Genetic Technologies, Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sochi 354340, Russia.
³ Graduate Program in Bioinformatics and Genomics, Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sochi 354340, Russia; Neuroscience Department, Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sochi 354340, Russia.
⁴ Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre 90050, Brazil. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁵ Neuroscience Department, Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sochi 354340, Russia.
⁶ Neuroscience Department, Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sochi 354340, Russia; Institute of Translational Biomedicine, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg 199034, Russia; Institute of Experimental Medicine, Almazov National Medical Research Centre, Ministry of Healthcare of Russian Federation, St. Petersburg 194021, Russia; Suzhou Key Laboratory of Neurobiology and Cell Signaling, Department of Biological Sciences, School of Science, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), Suzhou 215123, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 38876356
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2024.06.004

Abstract

Highly prevalent in laboratory rodents, 'social' hetero-grooming behavior is translationally relevant to modeling a wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders. Here, we comprehensively evaluated all known to date mouse genes linked to aberrant hetero-grooming phenotype, and applied bioinformatics tools to construct a network of their established protein-protein interactions (PPI). We next identified several distinct molecular clusters within this complex network, including neuronal differentiation, cytoskeletal, WNT-signaling and synapsins-associated pathways. Using additional bioinformatics analyses, we further identified 'central' (hub) proteins within these molecular clusters, likely key for mouse hetero-grooming behavior. Overall, a more comprehensive characterization of intricate molecular pathways linked to aberrant rodent grooming may markedly advance our understanding of underlying cellular mechanisms and related neurological disorders, eventually helping discover novel targets for their pharmacological or gene therapy interventions.

Keywords: genetic bases; hetero-grooming; in silico analyses; molecular network; rodents.

MeSH terms

Animals
Computational Biology*
Computer Simulation
Grooming* / physiology
Mice
Protein Interaction Maps / physiology
Social Behavior