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Shibata Yukino
| Faculty of Science Biological Sciences Behavioral Neuroethology | Specially Appointed Assistant Professor |
Researcher basic information
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researchmap URLホームページURL■ Various IDs
J-Global ID■ Research Keywords and Fields
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Research activity information
■ Awards- Mar. 2025, 日本動物学会, 川口賞（国際会議発表支援）
- Mar. 2023, 日本動物学会, 日本動物学会北海道支部第67回大会 優秀発表賞（口頭）
- Jul. 2022, 日本神経科学学会, 日本神経科学大会第45回大会（沖縄） 国内トラベルアワード
- Mar. 2019, 日本動物学会, 日本動物学会北海道支部第63回大会 最優秀発表賞（口頭）
- Expansion of learning capacity elicited by interspecific hybridization.
Yukino Shibata; Noriyuki Toji; Hongdi Wang; Yasuhiro Go; Kazuhiro Wada
Science advances, 10, 25, eadn3409, 21 Jun. 2024, [Peer-reviewed], [Lead author], [International Magazine]
English, Scientific journal, Learned behavior, a fundamental adaptive trait in fluctuating environments, is shaped by species-specific constraints. This phenomenon is evident in songbirds, which acquire their species-specific songs through vocal learning. To explore the neurogenetic mechanisms underlying species-specific song learning, we generated F1 hybrid songbirds by crossing Taeniopygia guttata with Aidemosyne modesta. These F1 hybrids demonstrate expanded learning capacities, adeptly mimicking songs from both parental species and other heterospecific songs more extensively than their parental counterparts. Despite the conserved size of brain regions and neuron numbers in the neural circuits for song learning and production, single-cell transcriptomics reveals distinctive transcriptional characteristics in the F1 hybrids, especially in vocal-motor projection neurons. These neurons exhibit enrichment for nonadditively expressed genes, particularly those related to ion channel activity and cell adhesion, which are associated with the degree of song learning among F1 individuals. Our findings provide insights into the emergence of altered learning capabilities through hybridization, linked to cell type-specific transcriptional changes. - Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in a songbird brain.
Norman Chinweike Asogwa; Noriyuki Toji; Ziwei He; Chengru Shao; Yukino Shibata; Shoji Tatsumoto; Hiroe Ishikawa; Yasuhiro Go; Kazuhiro Wada
The Journal of comparative neurology, 530, 11, 1966, 1991, Aug. 2022, [Peer-reviewed], [International Magazine]
English, Scientific journal, Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are ligand-gated ion channels that mediate fast synaptic transmission and cell signaling, which contribute to learning, memory, and the execution of motor skills. Birdsong is a complex learned motor skill in songbirds. Although the existence of 15 nAChR subunits has been predicted in the avian genome, their expression patterns and potential contributions to song learning and production have not been comprehensively investigated. Here, we cloned all the 15 nAChR subunits (ChrnA1-10, B2-4, D, and G) from the zebra finch brain and investigated the mRNA expression patterns in the neural pathways responsible for the learning and production of birdsong during a critical period of song learning. Although there were no detectable hybridization signals for ChrnA1, A6, A9, and A10, the other 11 nAChR subunits were uniquely expressed in one or more major subdivisions in the song nuclei of the songbird brain. Of these 11 subunits, ChrnA3-5, A7, and B2 were differentially regulated in the song nuclei compared with the surrounding anatomically related regions. ChrnA5 was upregulated during the critical period of song learning in the lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior nidopallium. Furthermore, single-cell RNA sequencing revealed ChrnA7 and B2 to be the major subunits expressed in neurons of the vocal motor nuclei HVC and robust nucleus of the arcopallium, indicating the potential existence of ChrnA7-homomeric and ChrnB2-heteromeric nAChRs in limited cell populations. These results suggest that relatively limited types of nAChR subunits provide functional contributions to song learning and production in songbirds. - Identification of novel avian and mammalian deltaviruses provides new insights into deltavirus evolution.
Masashi Iwamoto; Yukino Shibata; Junna Kawasaki; Shohei Kojima; Yung-Tsung Li; Shingo Iwami; Masamichi Muramatsu; Hui-Lin Wu; Kazuhiro Wada; Keizo Tomonaga; Koichi Watashi; Masayuki Horie
Virus evolution, 7, 1, veab003, Jan. 2021, [Peer-reviewed], [International Magazine]
English, Scientific journal, Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is a satellite virus that requires hepadnavirus envelope proteins for its transmission. Although recent studies identified HDV-related deltaviruses in certain animals, the evolution of deltaviruses, such as the origin of HDV and the mechanism of its coevolution with its helper viruses, is unknown, mainly because of the phylogenetic gaps among deltaviruses. Here, we identified novel deltaviruses of passerine birds, woodchucks, and white-tailed deer by extensive database searches and molecular surveillance. Phylogenetic and molecular epidemiological analyses suggest that HDV originated from mammalian deltaviruses and the past interspecies transmission of mammalian and passerine deltaviruses. Further, metaviromic and experimental analyses suggest that the satellite-helper relationship between HDV and hepadnavirus was established after the divergence of the HDV lineage from non-HDV mammalian deltaviruses. Our findings enhance our understanding of deltavirus evolution, diversity, and transmission, indicating the importance of further surveillance for deltaviruses. - Corticobasal ganglia projecting neurons are required for juvenile vocal learning but not for adult vocal plasticity in songbirds.
Miguel Sánchez-Valpuesta; Yumeno Suzuki; Yukino Shibata; Noriyuki Toji; Yu Ji; Nasiba Afrin; Chinweike Norman Asogwa; Ippei Kojima; Daisuke Mizuguchi; Satoshi Kojima; Kazuo Okanoya; Haruo Okado; Kenta Kobayashi; Kazuhiro Wada
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116, 45, 22833, 22843, 05 Nov. 2019, [Peer-reviewed], [International Magazine]
English, Scientific journal, Birdsong, like human speech, consists of a sequence of temporally precise movements acquired through vocal learning. The learning of such sequential vocalizations depends on the neural function of the motor cortex and basal ganglia. However, it is unknown how the connections between cortical and basal ganglia components contribute to vocal motor skill learning, as mammalian motor cortices serve multiple types of motor action and most experimentally tractable animals do not exhibit vocal learning. Here, we leveraged the zebra finch, a songbird, as an animal model to explore the function of the connectivity between cortex-like (HVC) and basal ganglia (area X), connected by HVC(X) projection neurons with temporally precise firing during singing. By specifically ablating HVC(X) neurons, juvenile zebra finches failed to copy tutored syllable acoustics and developed temporally unstable songs with less sequence consistency. In contrast, HVC(X)-ablated adults did not alter their learned song structure, but generated acoustic fluctuations and responded to auditory feedback disruption by the introduction of song deterioration, as did normal adults. These results indicate that the corticobasal ganglia input is important for learning the acoustic and temporal aspects of song structure, but not for generating vocal fluctuations that contribute to the maintenance of an already learned vocal pattern. - Transcriptional regulatory divergence underpinning species-specific learned vocalization in songbirds.
Hongdi Wang; Azusa Sawai; Noriyuki Toji; Rintaro Sugioka; Yukino Shibata; Yuika Suzuki; Yu Ji; Shin Hayase; Satoru Akama; Jun Sese; Kazuhiro Wada
PLoS biology, 17, 11, e3000476, Nov. 2019, [Peer-reviewed], [International Magazine]
English, Scientific journal, Learning of most motor skills is constrained in a species-specific manner. However, the proximate mechanisms underlying species-specific learned behaviors remain poorly understood. Songbirds acquire species-specific songs through learning, which is hypothesized to depend on species-specific patterns of gene expression in functionally specialized brain regions for vocal learning and production, called song nuclei. Here, we leveraged two closely related songbird species, zebra finch, owl finch, and their interspecific first-generation (F1) hybrids, to relate transcriptional regulatory divergence between species with the production of species-specific songs. We quantified genome-wide gene expression in both species and compared this with allele-specific expression in F1 hybrids to identify genes whose expression in song nuclei is regulated by species divergence in either cis- or trans-regulation. We found that divergence in transcriptional regulation altered the expression of approximately 10% of total transcribed genes and was linked to differential gene expression between the two species. Furthermore, trans-regulatory changes were more prevalent than cis-regulatory and were associated with synaptic formation and transmission in song nucleus RA, the avian analog of the mammalian laryngeal motor cortex. We identified brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) as an upstream mediator of trans-regulated genes in RA, with a significant correlation between individual variation in BDNF expression level and species-specific song phenotypes in F1 hybrids. This was supported by the fact that the pharmacological overactivation of BDNF receptors altered the expression of its trans-regulated genes in the RA, thus disrupting the learned song structures of adult zebra finch songs at the acoustic and sequence levels. These results demonstrate functional neurogenetic associations between divergence in region-specific transcriptional regulation and species-specific learned behaviors.
- Unlocking the genetic constraints of vocal learning in interspecies hybrid songbirds
Yukino Shibata
Virtual songbird satellite meeting, 01 Apr. 2023
[Invited]
■ Research Themes
- ハイブリッド小鳥の歌から紐解く複雑な音声学習能力進化を支える神経・分子メカニズム
海外研究援助 個人B
Apr. 2026 - Dec. 2026
山田科学振興財団 - ハイブリッド小鳥の歌から紐解く複雑な音声学習能力進化を支える神経・分子メカニズム
2025年度長期研究助成（留学）
Apr. 2026 - Dec. 2026
東洋紡バイオテクノロジー研究財団 - 異種間ハイブリッドソングバードにおける生得的に高い学習能力の神経分子基盤解明
科学研究費助成事業
24 Apr. 2020 - 31 Mar. 2023
柴田 ゆき野
ソングバード異種間ハイブリッド個体の音声学習において、ハイブリッド個体が両親種の個体に比べてより多くの音素を習得する雑種強勢現象に着目し、これらハイブリッド個体の音素学習能力を支える神経分子基盤解明を目指した。令和3年度までの実験結果から、歌神経核サイズおよび興奮性/抑制性ニューロン比率には親種-F1ハイブリッド間で有意差がないことが示され、一方で歌神経核内の単一神経細胞レベルのトランスクリプトーム解析では、歌生成制御回路を構成するHVC,RAの興奮性投射ニューロンにおいてF1ハイブリッドで非相加的発現を示す遺伝子群（non-additive genes）が集積していることが明らかになった。これを受け、さらに検証すべき事項としてF1ハイブリッドで非相加的発現を示す遺伝子群（non-additive genes）の機能解析（Gene Ontolgy analysis)を実施したところ、リガンド依存性イオンチャネル、膜貫通型受容体、細胞間接着因子など、神経活動パターンやニューロン間連絡に関わる遺伝子群がエンリッチされていることが明らかになった。以上の結果より、F1ハイブリッド個体においては歌行動制御を担う神経細胞群を中心とした神経活動関連遺伝子の非相加的発現パターンの新規な組み合わせが生じた結果、潜在的にいずれの親種とも異なる神経活動パターンを示しうる神経細胞群が生じ、多様な歌音響特性に対する習得能を獲得したことが示唆された。これを行動レベルで検証するため、さらにF1ハイブリッド個体に親種以外の異種歌を聞かせて学習させる実験を実施したところ、約50％の個体が異種歌を習得し、F1ハイブリッド個体が実際に親種歌のみにとどまらずより幅広い音素音響特性および音素配列パターンを習得可能であることが示された。
日本学術振興会, 特別研究員奨励費, 北海道大学, 20J20319 - 異種間ハイブリッドソングバードにおける生得的に高い学習能力の神経分子基盤解明
2020年度第2回先進ゲノム支援
Oct. 2020 - Dec. 2020
文部科学省 科研費 学術変革領域研究 先進ゲノム解析研究推進プラットフォーム（PAGS）
Social Contribution Activities
- 北海道札幌旭丘高校（SSH校）研究紹介・座談会
29 Oct. 2025 - 29 Oct. 2025
Lecturer - 北海道大学理学祭オンライン（学部生を対象とした研究・分野紹介）
06 Nov. 2021 - 06 Nov. 2021
Appearance - 北海道大学キャリアカフェ座談会（修士以下を対象とした座談会）
29 Sep. 2020 - 29 Sep. 2020
Panelist
