Kleitz, HK, Cornil, Charlotte, Balthazart, Jacques, Ball, GF
Evidence has accumulated that the regulation of male sexual behavior by dopamine might not be the same in Japanese quail (and perhaps all birds) as it is in mammals. For example, the non-selective...
Sex differences in the expression of sex steroid receptor mRNA in the quail brain. (2009)
Voigt, C, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
Abstract In Japanese quail, males will readily exhibit the full sequence of male-typical sexual behaviors but females never show this response even after ovariectomy and treatment with male-typical...
Boseret, Géraldine, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
The protein doublecortin (DCX) is expressed in post-mitotic migrating and differentiating neurons in the developing vertebrate brain and, as a part of the microtubule machinery, is required for...
Voigt, C, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
In birds and mammals, aromatase activity in the preoptic-hypothalamic region (HPOA) is usually higher in males than in females. It is, however, not known whether the enzymatic sex difference reflects...
Carere, C, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
In many vertebrate species the medial preoptic area projects to a premotor nucleus, the periaqueductal central gray (PAG). This connection plays an important role in the control of reproductive...
Cornil, Charlotte, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
Estrogens exert a wide variety of actions on reproductive and non-reproductive functions. These effects are mediated by slow and long lasting genomic as well as rapid and transient non-genomic...
Charlier, TD, Harada, N, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
Steroid receptors such as the androgen and estrogen receptors require the presence of several proteins, known as coactivators, to enhance the transcription of target genes. The first goal of the...
Charlier, TD, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
Analysis of nuclear receptor action on the eukaryotic genome highlights the importance of coactivators on gene transcription. The steroid receptor coactivator-1 in particular is the focus of an...
Is brain estradiol a hormone or a neurotransmitter? (2006)
Mounting evidence indicates that, besides their well-known hormonal mode of action at the genetic level, estrogens such as 17 beta-estradiol also influence brain function by direct effects on...
Taziaux, Mélanie, Cornil, Charlotte, Dejace, C, Arckens, L, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
We investigated the neural sites related to the occurrence of appetitive (ASB) and consummatory (CSB) aspects of male sexual behaviour in Japanese quail. Castrated males treated with testosterone...
Taziaux, M ; JFA; CORA, Cornil, CA, Dejace, C, Arckens, Lutgarde; U0003832 ;, Ball, GF, Balthazart, J
We investigated the neural sites related to the occurrence of appetitive (ASB) and consummatory (CSB) aspects of male sexual behaviour in Japanese quail. Castrated males treated with testosterone...
Rapid control of brain aromatase activity by glutamatergic inputs (2006)
Balthazart, Jacques, Baillien, M, Ball, GF
Estrogens derived from the neural aromatization of testosterone play a key role in the activation of male sexual behavior in many vertebrates and have now been recognized to have rapid membrane...
Rapid effects of aromatase inhibition on male reproductive behaviors in Japanese quail (2006)
Cornil, Charlotte, Taziaux, Mélanie, Baillien, M, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
Non-genomic effects of steroid hormones on cell physiology have been reported in the brain. However, relatively little is known about the behavioral significance of these actions. Male sexual...
Rapid changes in production and behavioral action of estrogens (2006)
Balthazart, Jacques, Cornil, Charlotte, Taziaux, Mélanie, Charlier, TD, Baillien, M, Ball, GF
It is well established that sex steroid hormones bind to nuclear receptors, which then act as transcription factors to control brain sexual differentiation and the activation of sexual behaviors....
Effects of calmodulin on aromatase activity in the preoptic area (2005)
Balthazart, Jacques, Baillien, M, Charlier, TD, Ball, GF
Oestrogens derived from the neural aromatisation of testosterone play a key role in the activation of male sexual behaviour in many vertebrates. Besides their slow action on gene transcription...
Interactions between kinases and phosphatases in the rapid control of brain aromatase (2005)
Balthazart, Jacques, Baillien, M, Ball, GF
Aromatization of testosterone into oestradiol plays a key role in the activation of male sexual behaviour in many vertebrate species. Rapid changes in brain aromatase activity have recently been...
Cornil, Charlotte, Dalla, C, Papadopoulou-Daifoti, Z, Baillien, M, Dejace, C, Ball, GF, ...
In Japanese quail, as in rats, the expression of male sexual behavior over relatively long time periods (days to weeks) is dependent on the local production of estradiol in the preoptic area via the...
Cornil, Charlotte, Dejace, C, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
In rats, dopamine (DA) facilitates male sexual behavior through its combined action on D1- and D2-like receptors, in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) as well as other brain areas. In Japanese quail,...
The effect of auditory distractors on song discrimination in male canaries (Serinus canaria) (2005)
Appeltants, D, Gentner, TQ, Hulse, SH, Balthazart, Jacques, Ball, GF
Male songbirds such as canaries produce complex learned vocalizations that are used in the context of mate attraction and territory defense. Successful mate attraction or territorial defense requires...
Testosterone-induced singing is regulated by social status in male canaries (serinus canaria) (2005)
Carere, C, Boseret, Géraldine, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
Sartor, JJ, Balthazart, Jacques, Ball, GF
Temperate zone songbirds that breed seasonally exhibit pronounced differences in reproductive behaviors including song inside and outside the breeding season. Springlike long daylengths are...
Charlier, TD, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
Studies of eukaryotic gene expression demonstrate the importance of nuclear steroid receptor coactivators in mediating efficient gene transcription. However, little is known about the physiological...
Charlier, TD, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
We analyzed the expression of the immediate early genes c-fos and Zenk (egr-1) in the brain of male quail that were gonadally intact (1) or castrated and treated (CX+T) or not (CX) with testosterone...
Hormonal regulation of brain circuits mediating male sexual behavior in birds (2004)
Male sexual behavior in both field and laboratory settings has been studied in birds since the 19th century. Birds are valuable for the investigation of the neuroendocrine mechanisms of sexual...
Preoptic aromatase modulates male sexual behavior: slow and fast mechanisms of action (2004)
Balthazart, Jacques, Baillien, M, Cornil, Charlotte, Ball, GF
In many species, copulatory behavior and appetitive (anticipatory/motivational) aspects of male sexual behavior are activated by the action in the preoptic area of estrogens locally produced by...
Catecholaminergic inputs to aromatase cells in the canary auditory forebrain (2004)
Appeltants, D, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
The caudomedial nidopallium in songbirds is a specialized forebrain auditory region involved in the processing of species-typical vocalizations. It receives a prominent catecholaminergic projection...
Ball, GF, Auger, CJ, Bernard, DJ, Charlier, TD, Sartor, JJ, Riters, LV, ...
Birdsong, in non-tropical species, is generally more common in spring and summer when males sing to attract mates and/or defend territories. Changes in the volumes of song control nuclei, such as HVC...
Multiple mechanisms control brain aromatase activity at the genomic and non-genomic level (2003)
Balthazart, Jacques, Baillien, M, Charlier, TD, Cornil, Charlotte, Ball, GF
Evidence has recently accumulated indicating that aromatase activity in the preoptic area is modulated in parallel by both slow (hours to days) genomic and rapid (minutes to hours) non-genomic...
The neuroendocrinology of reproductive behavior in Japanese quail (2003)
Balthazart, Jacques, Baillien, M, Charlier, TD, Cornil, Charlotte, Ball, GF
Sex steroid hormones such as testosterone have widespread effects on brain physiology and function but one of their best characterized effects arguably involves the activation of male sexual...
Calcium-dependent phosphorylation processes control brain aromatase in quail (2003)
Balthazart, Jacques, Baillien, M, Charlier, TD, Ball, GF
Increased gene transcription activated by the binding of sex steroids to their cognate receptors is one important way in which oestrogen synthase (aromatase) activity is regulated in the brain. This...
Charlier, TD, Balthazart, Jacques, Ball, GF
The steroid receptor coactivator SRC-1 modulates ligand-dependent transactivation of several nuclear receptors, including the receptors for sex steroid hormones. The distribution of SRC-1 transcripts...
Appeltants, D, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
In canaries, singing and a large number of morphological features of the neural system that mediates the learning, perception and production of song exhibit marked sex differences. Although these...
Ball, GF, Castelino, CB, Maney, DL, Appeltants, D, Balthazart, Jacques
Birdsong is a species-typical stereotypic vocalization produced in the context of reproduction and aggression. Among temperate-zone songbirds, it is produced primarily by males, and its frequency and...
Charlier, TD, Lakaye, Bernard, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
The steroid receptor coactivator SRC-1 modulates ligand-dependent transactivation of several nuclear receptors, including the receptors for sex steroid hormones. Reducing the expression of SRC-1 by...
Balthazart, Jacques, Baillien, M, Ball, GF
In male quail, like in other vertebrates including rodents, testosterone acting especially through its estrogenic metabolites is necessary for the activation of male sexual behavior. Also, the...
The origin of catecholaminergic inputs to the song control nucleus RA in canaries (2002)
Appeltants, D, Ball, GF, Balthazart, Jacques
Song control nuclei in oscines receive dense catecholaminergic inputs but their anatomical origin is poorly understood. We analyzed catecholaminergic inputs to the nucleus robustus archistriatalis...
Ball, GF, Riters, LV, Balthazart, Jacques
Seasonal changes in the brain of songbirds are one of the most dramatic examples of naturally occuring neuroplasticity that have been described in any vertebrate species. In males of temperate-zone...
Absil, Philippe, Braquenier, Jean-Baptiste, Balthazart, Jacques, Ball, GF
Neurochemical, hodological and functional criteria suggest that the nucleus taeniae and parts of the adjacent archistriatum represent the avian homologue of parts of the mammalian amygdaloid complex....
Phosphorylation processes mediate rapid changes of brain aromatase activity (2001)
Balthazart, Jacques, Baillien, M, Ball, GF
The enzyme aromatase (also called estrogen synthase) that catalyzes the transformation of testosterone (T) into estradiol plays a key limiting role in the action of T on many aspects of reproduction....
The control of preoptic aromatase activity by afferent inputs in Japanese quail (2001)
Absil, Philippe, Baillien, M, Ball, GF, Panzica, GC, Balthazart, Jacques
This review summarizes current knowledge on the mechanisms that control aromatase activity in the quail preoptic area, a brain region that plays a key role in the control of reproduction. Aromatase...
Ball, GF, Bernard, DJ, Foidart, Agnès, Lakaye, Bernard, Balthazart, Jacques
Studies in avian species have often been useful in elucidating basic concepts relevant to the regulation of reproductive behaviors by sex steroid hormones. Once a link between a steroid hormone and a...
Balthazart, Jacques, Absil, Philippe, Gérard, Marie-Paule, Appeltants, D, Ball, GF
Central testosterone aromatization is required for the activation of both appetitive (ASB) and consummatory (CSB) male sexual behavior in Japanese quail. There are two major clusters of aromatase...