10.5061/DRYAD.9P8CZ8WH6
Iwaniuk, Andrew
0000-0001-9273-3655
University of Lethbridge
Quantitative anatomy of the cerebellum on chickens and junglefowl
Dryad
dataset
2021
FOS: Biological sciences
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
https://ror.org/01h531d29
Canada Foundation for Innovation
https://ror.org/000az4664
Canada Research Chairs
https://ror.org/0517h6h17
2021-10-24T00:00:00Z
2021-10-24T00:00:00Z
en
1650 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Domestication is the process by which wild organisms become adapted for
human use. Many phenotypic changes are associated with animal
domestication, including decreases in brain and brain region sizes. In
contrast to this pattern, the chicken has a larger cerebellum compared
with the wild red junglefowl, but what neuroanatomical changes are
responsible for this difference have yet to be investigated. Here, we
quantified cell layer volumes, neuron numbers and neuron sizes in the
cerebella of chickens and junglefowl. Chickens have larger, more folded
cerebella with more and larger granule cells than junglefowl, but neuron
numbers and cerebellar folding were proportional to cerebellum size.
However, chickens do have relatively larger granule cell layer volumes and
relatively larger granule cells than junglefowl. Thus, the chicken
cerebellum can be considered a scaled-up version of the junglefowl
cerebellum, but with enlarged granule cells. The combination of scaling
neuron number and disproportionate enlargement of cell bodies partially
supports a recent theory that domestication does not affect neuronal
density within brain regions. Whether the neuroanatomical changes we
observed are typical of domestication or not requires similar quantitative
analyses in other domesticated species and across multiple brain regions.
The data was collected using unbiased stereology, the parameters for which
are described in the accompanying manuscript.