ZEBRA

ZEBrA is being constructed in the Mello laboratory (Dept. of Behavioral Neuroscience, OHSU, Portland OR). All of the genes in ZEBrA are named according to their orthology with unique human loci and assigned a name (or gene symbol) that has been established and is curated by the Human Genome Nomenclature Consortium (HGNC). All of the clones used for this project are derived from normalized zebra finch brain cDNA libraries and are part of the Songbird:ESTIMA collection (clones available upon request). DIG-labeled antisense riboprobes are hybridized to parasagittal brain sections derived from adult male zebra finches using an optimized non-radioactive in situ hybridization protocol specifically developed for ZEBrA. Genes with highly differential expression patterns are hybridized to several sections (5-9 levels, 0.2 - 4.0 mm from midline), while genes with non-differential patterns are hybridized to 1-4 levels ( 1.0 and 2.4 mm from midline) focusing on documenting expression in song..