Dataset Information

The dynamics of color signals in male threespine sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus.

ABSTRACT: Body coloration and color patterns are ubiquitous throughout the animal kingdom and vary between and within species. Recent studies have dealt with individual dynamics of various aspects of coloration, as it is in many cases a flexible trait and changes in color expression may be context-dependent. During the reproductive phase, temporal changes of coloration in the visible spectral range (400-700 nm) have been shown for many animals but corresponding changes in the ultraviolet (UV) waveband (300-400 nm) have rarely been studied. Threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus males develop conspicuous orange-red breeding coloration combined with UV reflectance in the cheek region. We investigated dynamics of color patterns including UV throughout a male breeding cycle, as well as short-term changes in coloration in response to a computer-animated rival using reflectance spectrophotometry and visual modeling, to estimate how colors would be perceived by conspecifics. We found the orange-red component of coloration to vary during the breeding cycle with respect to hue (theta/R50) and intensity (achieved chroma/red chroma). Furthermore, color intensity in the orange-red spectral part (achieved chroma) tended to be increased after the presentation of an artificial rival. Dynamic changes in specific measures of hue and intensity in the UV waveband were not found. In general, the orange-red component of the signal seems to be dynamic with respect to color intensity and hue. This accounts in particular for color changes during the breeding cycle, presumably to signal reproductive status, and with limitations as well in the intrasexual context, most likely to signal dominance or inferiority.

SUBMITTER: Hiermes M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5804133 | biostudies-other | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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The dynamics of color signals in male threespine sticklebacks <i>Gasterosteus aculeatus</i>.

Hiermes Meike M Rick Ingolf P IP Mehlis Marion M Bakker Theo C M TCM

Current zoology 20160210 1

Body coloration and color patterns are ubiquitous throughout the animal kingdom and vary between and within species. Recent studies have dealt with individual dynamics of various aspects of coloration, as it is in many cases a flexible trait and changes in color expression may be context-dependent. During the reproductive phase, temporal changes of coloration in the visible spectral range (400-700 nm) have been shown for many animals but corresponding changes in the ultraviolet (UV) waveband (30 ...[more]

PMID: 29491887

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Project description:A data-independent acquisition (DIA) assay library for quantitative analyses of proteome dynamics has been developed for gills of threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). A raw spectral library was generated by data-dependent acquisition (DDA) and annotation of tryptic peptides to MSMS spectra and protein database identifiers. The assay library was constructed from the raw spectral library by removal of low-quality, ambiguous, and low-signal peptides. Only unique proteins represented by at least two peptides are included in the assay library, which consists of 1506 proteins, 5074 peptides, 5104 precursors, and 25,322 transitions. This assay library was used with DIA data to identify biochemical differences in gill proteomes of four populations representing different eco- and morpho-types of threespine sticklebacks. The assay library revealed unique and reproducible proteome signatures. Warm-adapted, low-plated, brackish-water fish from Laguna de la Bocana del Rosario (Mexico) show elevated HSP47, extracellular matrix, and innate immunity proteins whereas several immunoglobulins, interferon-induced proteins, ubiquitins, proteolytic enzymes, and nucleic acid remodeling proteins are reduced. Fully-plated, brackish-water fish from Westchester Lagoon (Alaska) display elevated ion regulation, GTPase signaling, and contractile cytoskeleton proteins, altered abundances of many ribosomal, calcium signaling and immunity proteins, and depleted transcriptional regulators and metabolic enzymes. Low-plated freshwater fish from Lake Solano (California) have elevated inflammasomes and proteolytic proteins whereas several iron containing and ion regulatory proteins are reduced. Gills of fully-plated, marine fish from Bodega Harbor (California) have elevated oxidative metabolism enzymes and reduced transglutaminase 2, collagens, and clathrin heavy chains. These distinct proteome signatures represent targets for testing ecological and evolutionary influences on molecular mechanisms of gill function in threespine sticklebacks. Furthermore, the gill assay library represents a model for other tissues and paves the way for accurate and reproducible network analyses of environmental context-dependent proteome dynamics in complex organisms.

Project description:Purpose: The goal of this study was to compare gene expression in whole embryos to identify transcriptomic changes that result from maternal exposure to predation risk. Methods: Whole embryo mRNA profiles of 3 day post-fertilizationstickleback embrosof mothers exposed to simulated predation risk and control embryos were generated by RNA-sequencing of pooled embryos using Illumina Hiseq2000. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were aligned to the stickleback reference genome and analyzed at the gene level (EdgeR) and at the transcript level (Cufflinks/Cuffdiff). Subsets of embryos were also measured for embryo length and eye diameter, and data were analyzed with a general linear model (SPSS). Results: We mapped ~22 million sequence reads per sample to the stickleback reference genome (BROADS1, Ensembl database version 71.1, Feb 2006) and identified 17440 transcripts with the Tophat workflow. Differential expression analysis using both EdgeR and Cufflinks/Cuffdiff identified 455 transcripts were differentially expressed in embryos of mothers exposed to simulated predation risk as compared to control embryos, with an FDR <0.05 (Cuffdiff) or <0.10 (EdgeR). Gene ontology and pathway analysis (DAVID, IPA) of the differentially expressed gene list revealed enrichment of genes involved in growth, metabolism, neurogenesis, and epigenetics. Embryos of mothers exposed to predation risk had elevated expression of growth and metabolism genes and were also larger than control embryos, suggesting at least some of the genes differentially expressed in this study are involved in the transfer of maternal experience to offspring. Conclusions: Our results suggest that early stickleback embryos respond to maternal exposure to predation risk via changes in gene expression, and a general acceleration of the developmental program. Further study is needed to elucidate the myriad molecular interactions between genes that are differentially-regulated as a result of maternal exposure to predation risk and to understand their relationships to previously-observed maternal effects in this system.

Dataset Information

The dynamics of color signals in male threespine sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus.

Publications

The dynamics of color signals in male threespine sticklebacks <i>Gasterosteus aculeatus</i>.

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