Consistency in the strength of laterality in male, but not female, guppies across different behavioural contexts.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: McLean S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7280045 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Sexual coercion of females by males is widespread across sexually reproducing species. It stems from a conflict of interest over reproduction and exerts selective pressure on both sexes. For females, there is often a significant energetic cost of exposure to male sexually coercive behaviours.Our understanding of the efficiency of female resistance to male sexually coercive behaviour is key to understanding how sexual conflict contributes to population level dynamics and ultimately to the evolution of sexually antagonistic traits.Overlooked within this context are plastic physiological responses of traits within the lifetime of females that could moderate the energetic cost imposed by coercive males. Here, we examined whether conflict over the frequency and timing of mating between male and female guppies Poecilia reticulata can induce changes in swimming performance and aerobic capacity in females as they work to escape harassment by males.Females exposed to higher levels of harassment over a 5-month period used less oxygen to swim at a given speed, but displayed no difference in resting metabolic rate, maximal metabolic rate, maximal sustained swimming speed or aerobic scope compared to females receiving lower levels of harassment.The observed increase in swimming efficiency is at least partially related to differences in swimming mechanics, likely brought on by a training effect of increased activity, as highly harassed females spent less time performing pectoral fin-assisted swimming.Sexual conflict results in sexually antagonistic traits that impose a variety of costs, but our results show that females can reduce costs through phenotypic plasticity. It is also possible that phenotypic plasticity in swimming physiology or mechanics in response to sexual coercion can potentially give females more control over matings and affect which male traits are under selection.
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Project description:To survive, animals must respond appropriately to stress. Stress responses are costly, so early-life experiences with potential stressors could adaptively tailor adult stress responses to local conditions. However, how multiple stressors influence the development of the stress response remains unclear, as is the role of sex. Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) are small fish with extensive life-history differences between the sexes and population variation in predation pressure and social density. We investigated how sex and early-life experience influence hormonal stress responses by manipulating conspecific density and perceived predation risk during development. In adults, we sampled cortisol twice to measure initial release and change over time in response to a recurring stressor. The sexes differed considerably in their physiological stress response. Males released more cortisol for their body mass than females and did not reduce cortisol release over time. By contrast, all females, except those reared at high density together with predation cues, reduced cortisol release over time. Cortisol responses of males were thus less dynamic in response to current circumstances and early-life experiences than females, consistent with life-history differences between the sexes. Our study underscores the importance of early-life experiences, interacting ecological factors and sex differences in the organization of the stress response.
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Project description:Understanding the background mechanisms affecting the emergence and maintenance of consistent between-individual variation within population in single (animal personality) or across multiple (behavioural syndrome) behaviours has key importance. State-dependence theory suggests that behaviour is 'anchored' to individual state (e.g. body condition, gender, age) and behavioural consistency emerges through behavioural-state feedbacks. A number of relevant state variables are labile (e.g. body condition, physiological performance) and expected to be affected by short-term environmental change. Yet, whether short-term environmental shifts affect behavioural consistency during adulthood remains questionable. Here, by employing a full-factorial laboratory experiment, we explored if quantity of food (low vs. high) and time available for thermoregulation (3h vs. 10h per day) had an effect on activity and risk-taking of reproductive adult male European green lizards (Lacerta viridis). We focussed on different components of behavioural variation: (i) strength of behavioural consistency (repeatability for animal personality; between-individual correlation for behavioural syndrome), (ii) behavioural type (individual mean behaviour) and (iii) behavioural predictability (within-individual behavioural variation). Activity was repeatable in all treatments. Risk-taking was repeatable only in the low basking treatments. We found significant between-individual correlation only in the low food × long basking time group. The treatments did not affect behavioural type, but affected behavioural predictability. Activity predictability was higher in the short basking treatment, where it also decreased with size (? age). Risk-taking predictability in the short basking treatment increased with size under food limitation, but decreased when food supply was high. We conclude that short-term environmental change can alter various components of behavioural consistency. The effect could be detected in the presence/absence patterns of animal personality and behavioural syndrome and the level of individual behavioural predictability, but not in behavioural type.
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Project description:In 2005, Holy and Guo advanced the idea that male mice produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) with some features similar to courtship songs of songbirds. Since then, studies showed that male mice emit USV songs in different contexts (sexual and other) and possess a multisyllabic repertoire. Debate still exists for and against plasticity in their vocalizations. But the use of a multisyllabic repertoire can increase potential flexibility and information, in how elements are organized and recombined, namely syntax. In many bird species, modulating song syntax has ethological relevance for sexual behavior and mate preferences. In this study we exposed adult male mice to different social contexts and developed a new approach of analyzing their USVs based on songbird syntax analysis. We found that male mice modify their syntax, including specific sequences, length of sequence, repertoire composition, and spectral features, according to stimulus and social context. Males emit longer and simpler syllables and sequences when singing to females, but more complex syllables and sequences in response to fresh female urine. Playback experiments show that the females prefer the complex songs over the simpler ones. We propose the complex songs are to lure females in, whereas the directed simpler sequences are used for direct courtship. These results suggest that although mice have a much more limited ability of song modification, they could still be used as animal models for understanding some vocal communication features that songbirds are used for.
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Project description:We explored the effects of baroreceptor afferents laterality and sexual dimorphism on the expression of cardiovascular reflex responses to baroreflex activation in Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. Under urethane anesthesia, rats of either sex (total n = 18) were instrumented for left, right and bilateral aortic depressor nerve (ADN) stimulation (1-40 Hz, 0.2 ms, 0.4 mA for 20 s) and measurement of mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR) and mesenteric (MVR) and femoral (FVR) vascular resistance. Female rats were matched for the diestrus phase of the estrus cycle. Left, right and bilateral ADN stimulation evoked frequency-dependent drops in MAP, HR, and MVR, and increases in FVR. Irrespective of sex, left and bilateral ADN stimulation as compared to right-sided stimulation mediated greater reflex reductions in MAP, HR, and MVR but not in FVR. In males, reflex bradycardic responses were greater in response to bilateral stimulation relative to both left- and right-sided stimulation. In females, left ADN stimulation evoked the largest increase in FVR. Left and bilateral ADN stimulations evoked greater reductions in MAP and MVR while left-sided stimulation produced larger increases in FVR in females compared with males. All other reflex responses to ADN stimulation were relatively comparable between males and females. These results show a differential baroreflex processing of afferent neurotransmission promoted by left versus right baroreceptor afferent inputs and sexual dimorphism in the expression of baroreflex responses in rats of either sex. Collectively, these data add to our understanding of physiological mechanisms pertaining to baroreflex control in both males and females.
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Project description:Female preferences for male ornamental traits can arise from indirect benefits, such as increased attractiveness or better viability of progeny, but empirical evidence for such benefits is inconsistent. Artificial selection offers a powerful way to investigate indirect effects of male ornaments. Here, we selected for the area of orange spots on male guppies, a trait subject to female preferences in our population, in replicated up- and down-selected lines. We found a significant direct response to selection, and a correlated response in female preferences, with females from down-selected lines showing less interest in more orange males. Nevertheless, up-selected males sired more offspring in direct competition with low-selected males, irrespective of female origin. We did not find a significantly correlated response to selection among any other fitness correlates we measured. Our results imply that female preferences for orange spots can lead to increased reproductive success of their sons, with no effect on general viability of progeny. Furthermore, although we demonstrate that female preferences may evolve via linkage disequilibrium with the preferred trait, the potential for runaway selection by positive feedback may be constrained by the lack of corresponding linkage with male reproductive competitiveness.
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Project description:Lateralized behaviour is found in humans and a wide variety of other species. At a population level, lateralization of behaviour suggests hemispheric specialization may underlie this behaviour. As in other cetaceans, dolphins exhibit a strong right-side bias in foraging behaviour. Common bottlenose dolphins in The Bahamas use a foraging technique termed 'crater feeding', in which they swim slowly along the ocean floor, scanning the substrate using echolocation, and then bury their rostrums into the sand to obtain prey. The bottlenose dolphins off Bimini, The Bahamas, frequently execute a sharp turn before burying their rostrums in the sand. Based on data collected from 2012 to 2018, we report a significant right-side (left turn) bias in these dolphins. Out of 709 turns recorded from at least 27 different individuals, 99.44% (n = 705) were to the left (right side and right eye down) [z = 3.275, p = 0.001]. Only one individual turned right (left side and left eye down, 4/4 turns). We hypothesize that this right-side bias may be due in part to the possible laterization of echolocation production mechanisms, the dolphins' use of the right set of phonic lips to produce echolocation clicks, and a right eye (left hemisphere) advantage in visual discrimination and visuospatial processing.
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Project description:While the link between the gut microbiome and host behaviour is well established, how the microbiomes of other organs correlate with behaviour remains unclear. Additionally, behaviour-microbiome correlations are likely sex-specific because of sex differences in behaviour and physiology, but this is rarely tested. Here, we tested whether the skin microbiome of the Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata, predicts fish activity level and shoaling tendency in a sex-specific manner. High-throughput sequencing revealed that the bacterial community richness on the skin (Faith's phylogenetic diversity) was correlated with both behaviours differently between males and females. Females with richer skin-associated bacterial communities spent less time actively swimming. Activity level was significantly correlated with community membership (unweighted UniFrac), with the relative abundances of 16 bacterial taxa significantly negatively correlated with activity level. We found no association between skin microbiome and behaviours among male fish. This sex-specific relationship between the skin microbiome and host behaviour may indicate sex-specific physiological interactions with the skin microbiome. More broadly, sex specificity in host-microbiome interactions could give insight into the forces shaping the microbiome and its role in the evolutionary ecology of the host.
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