Identification, distribution, and developmental changes of a melatonin binding site in the song control system of the zebra finch.

In many avian species, singing is a circadian or seasonal behavior that appears to be widely dependent on gonadal steroid hormones. To explore the possibility of a further hormone-dependent vocal control mechanism driven by the action of melatonin, we examined the binding of iodinated melatonin (IMEL) in the vocal control network of adult and juvenile (22- and 40-day-old) zebra finches. IMEL binding areas of the zebra finch brain were localized and characterized by using quantitative in vitro autoradiography. In the vocal control system, dense IMEL binding sites were restricted to the nucleus hyperstriatalis ventrale, pars caudalis (HVC). The binding of IMEL to the HVC and to visual areas, e.g., the ectostriatum and the optic tectum, was saturable and showed a single class of high-affinity binding sites with binding affinities (Kds) in the range of 5-20 pM. Competition experiments with various indols and IMEL showed that the IMEL binding site in the zebra finch brain has properties similar to the high-affinity melatonin receptor described in the chicken, in the house sparrow, and in the mammalian brain and retina. Similar to the zebra finch HVC, the HVC of other songbirds, e.g., male canaries and male house sparrows, has the most intense IMEL binding of all areas of the vocal control network. The IMEL binding in the forebrain vocal control areas of the zebra finch, but not that in the visual processing areas, was sexually dimorphic in correlation with the sexually dimorphic neuroanatomy of the forebrain vocal control areas. In the HVC, there is a developmental increase in the maximal number of binding sites for IMEL and in the protein content, so that the adult phenotype of dense IMEL binding develops between day 40 and day 80. The distribution and developmental pattern of IMEL binding in the song system suggests that melatonin has a role in the motor control of singing. Melatonin binding sites in HVC could link HVC-based song control to circadian and circannual changes in the photoperiod independent of gonadal steroids.