期刊
GENERAL AND COMPARATIVE ENDOCRINOLOGY
卷 180, 期 -, 页码 56-63出版社
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2012.10.014
关键词
Mate choice; Sexual selection; Sex steroid hormones; Reproductive physiology; Prostaglandin F-2 alpha; Sexual behavior
资金
- NSF [0843712]
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Dwight W. and Blanche Faye Reeder Centennial Fellowship in Systematic and Evolutionary Biology and Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology Fellowship
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0843712] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Mate choice is fundamental to sexual selection, yet little is known about underlying physiological mechanisms that influence female mating decisions. We investigated the endocrine underpinnings of female mate choice in the African cichlid Astatotilapia burtoni, a non-seasonal breeder. In addition to profiling behavioral and hormonal changes across the female reproductive cycle, we tested two hypotheses regarding possible factors influencing female mate choice. We first asked whether female mate choice is influenced by male visual and/or chemical cues. A. burtoni females were housed for one full reproductive cycle in the center of a dichotomous choice apparatus with a large (attractive) or small (unattractive) conspecific male on either side. Females associated mostly with small, less attractive males, but on the day of spawning reversed their preference to large, attractive males, with whom they mated almost exclusively, although this choice depended on the relative amount of androgens released into the water by small males. We next asked whether male behavior or androgen levels change in relation to the stimulus females' reproductive state. We found that stimulus male aggression decreased and reproductive displays increased as the day of spawning approached. Moreover male testosterone levels changed throughout the females' reproductive cycle, with larger males releasing more testosterone into the water than small males. Our data suggest that female association in a dichotomous choice assay is only indicative of the actual mate choice on the day of spawning. Furthermore, we show that male behavior and hormone levels are dependent on the reproductive state of conspecific females. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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