Galanin is a conserved neuropeptide involved in parental care and feeding. While galanin is known to mediate parental care and infanticide in rodents, its role in parental care and feeding behaviors in other taxa, particularly fishes, remains poorly understood. Mouthbrooding is an extreme form of parental care common in fishes in which caregivers carry offspring in their buccal cavity for the duration of development, resulting in obligatory starvation. In the cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni, females brood their young for ~2 wks and perform maternal care after release by collecting them into their mouth when threatened. However, females will cannibalize their brood after ~5 days. To examine the role of gal in feeding and maternal care, we collected mouthbrooding, fed, and starved females, as well as those displaying post-release maternal care and infanticide behaviors. Activation of gal neurons in the preoptic area (POA) was associated with parental care, providing the first link between gal and offspring-promoting behaviors in fishes. In contrast, activation of gal neurons in the lateral tuberal nucleus (NLT), the Arcuate homolog, was associated with feeding and infanticide. Overall, these data suggest gal is functionally conserved across vertebrate taxa with POA gal neurons promoting maternal care and Arc/NLT gal neurons promoting feeding.

甘丙肽是参与父母照料和喂养的保守神经肽。尽管已知甘丙肽能在啮齿动物中介导父母照料和杀婴，但其在其他类群（尤其是鱼类）的父母照料和摄食行为中的作用仍知之甚少。口育是鱼类中常见的一种极端的父母关怀形式，在这种情况下，看护者在其发育过程中会在其颊腔中携带后代，从而导致必须饥饿。在丽鱼伯氏妊丽鱼，女性育雏他们的〜2周的年轻和威胁时，他们收集到他们的口中发布之后进行孕产妇保健。但是，雌性会在约5天后蚕食自己的母巢。检查gal的作用在喂养和孕产妇保健方面，我们收集了令人垂涎的，饱食和饥饿的雌性女性，以及表现出释放后孕产妇保健和杀婴行为的女性。视前区（POA）中gal神经元的激活与父母关怀有关，这为鱼类中gal和后代促进行为之间提供了第一个联系。相比之下，弓形侧向核（NLT）中的gal神经元的激活与进食和杀婴有关。总体而言，这些数据表明gal在整个脊椎动物类群中具有功能保守性，其中POA gal神经元促进母体护理，而Arc / NLT gal神经元促进进食。