Divergent Photoperiodic Responses in Hypothalamic Dio3 Expression and Gonadal Activity Between Offspring and Paternal Brandt’s Voles

The postnatal development of gonadal glands in seasonal breeders, particularly small rodent species, is influenced by photoperiodic patterns. However, little research has been conducted on the effects of pattern similarity and age differentiation especially in molecular features. This study compares the postnatal development of gonadal glands and the expression of hypothalamic genes related to reproductive regulation in male offspring of Brandt's voles (<i>Lasiopodomys brandtii</i>) born under three types of changing photoperiodic patterns: increasing long photoperiod (ILP, 12 h + 3 min/day), natural increasing long photoperiods (NLPs), and decreasing short photoperiods (DSPs, 12 h - 3 min/day), as well as in their paternal voles exposed to these patterns at the same period. Results indicate that over the course of 12 postnatal weeks, gonadal development, including organ masses and serum testosterone levels, exhibited similar profiles between the ILP and NLP groups, which were significantly higher than those observed in DSP offspring. Hypothalamic type 3 iodothyronine deiodinase (<i>Dio3</i>) exhibited significantly higher expression in the DSP group from postnatal week 4 to 8 compared to the other two groups. These physiological and molecular differences gradually decreased with age in offspring, but were never observed in the paternal voles, indicating divergent photoperiodic responses between the two ages. The synchronous profiles observed between hypothalamic <i>Dio3</i> expression and gonadal activities underscore its crucial role in interpreting photoperiodic signals and regulating gonadal development in Brandt's voles.