Abstract
The present study was conducted to investigate the mRNA expression of the two estrogen receptor (ER) subtypes ERα and ERβ in the brain of Japanese quail embryos. We found expression of both ERα and ERβ mRNA in homogenate of whole head from 6‐day‐old embryos, and in brain homogenate from 9‐ and 12‐day‐old embryos using real‐time PCR. In 9‐ and 12‐day‐old embryos the ERα expression was higher in females than in males. We used in situ hybridization to examine the localization of the ERs in sections from male and female brains on day 9 and day 17 of incubation. On day 9, ERβ mRNA was detected in the developing medial preoptic nucleus (POM), in the medial part of the bed nucleus of the striae terminalis (BSTm), and in the tuberal region of the hypothalamus. ERα signal could not be detected in the POM, the BSTm or the tuberal region in 9‐day‐old embryos. In 17‐day‐old embryos, ERβ was highly expressed in the preoptic area, the nucleus Taeniae of the Amygdala (TnA) and the BSTm. Expression of ERα mRNA was detected in parts of the preoptic area and in the telencephalic TnA. No ERα expression was found in the BSTm, an area known to be sexually dimorphic in adults. The high embryonic expression of ERβ in brain areas linked to sexual behavior indicates that ERβ plays a role in sexual differentiation of the Japanese quail brain. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol, 2007.