The transcriptome of the rat hypothalamic-neurohypophyseal system is highly strain-dependent.

We have used microarrays to comprehensively describe the transcriptomes of the supraoptic nucleus (SON), the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and the neurointermediate lobe of adult male Sprague-Dawley (SD) and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats, as well as the PVN of Wistar rats. Comparison of these gene lists has enabled us to identify surprisingly large differences in hypothalamic-neurohypophyseal system gene expression patterns in these three strains. We have also shown that different transcript populations are enriched in the PVN and the SON of SD and WKY rats. The transcriptome differences catalogued here may be molecular substrates for the neuro-humoral phenotypic differences exhibited by different strains of rats.