How nutritional conditions during early development affect an organism’s phenotype at adulthood is still poorly understood despite a plethora of research on developmental plasticity.The"environmental matching&qu...How nutritional conditions during early development affect an organism’s phenotype at adulthood is still poorly understood despite a plethora of research on developmental plasticity.The"environmental matching"hypothesis predicts that individuals will have high fitness providing that their adult environment"matches"what they experienced during development.In contrast,the"silver spoon"hypothesis predicts that individuals who obtain better developmental resources will be generally superior.Here we tested these two hypotheses and examined the underlying hormonal mechanisms by manipulating the early dietary protein content of African clawed frogs(Xenopus laevis)for a year with a 2×2 factorial experimental design.We found that only a lowprotein food during development enhanced the vocal competition ability of male X.laevis,and that vocal dominance was associated with higher cortisol levels but not related with testosterone content.These results were not congruent with the"environmental matching"hypothesis or with the"silver spoon"hypothesis,suggesting the behavioral plasticity during development is more complex than our expectation in amphibians.展开更多
Environmental noise has a significant negative impact on acoustic communication in most situations,as it influences the production,transmis-sion,and reception of acoustic signals.However,how animals respond to conspec...Environmental noise has a significant negative impact on acoustic communication in most situations,as it influences the production,transmis-sion,and reception of acoustic signals.However,how animals respond to conspecific sounds when there is interference from environmental noise,and whether males and females display convergent behavioral responses in the face of noise masking remain poorly understood.In this study,we investigated the effects of conspecific male advertisement calls with different signal-to-noise ratios on male-male competition and female choice in the Anhui tree frog Rhacophorus zhoukaiyae using playback and phonotaxis experiments,respectively.The results showed that(1)female Anhui tree frogs preferentially selected the conspecific calls with higher SNR compared to calls with lower SNR;(2)males preferen-tially responded vocally to the conspecific calls with higher SNR compared to calls with lower SNR;and(3)males'competitive strategies were flexible in the face of noise interference.These results suggest that preferences of both sexes converge in outcome,and that male competitive strategies may depend on predictable female preferences.This study will provide an important basis for further research on decision-making in animals.展开更多
基金financially supported by grants for the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31370431)to JFCthe Sichuan Provincial Science and Technology Department(2018JY0617)to JFCthe Biodiversity Survey and Assessment Project of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment,China(2019HJ2096001006)to JFC。
文摘How nutritional conditions during early development affect an organism’s phenotype at adulthood is still poorly understood despite a plethora of research on developmental plasticity.The"environmental matching"hypothesis predicts that individuals will have high fitness providing that their adult environment"matches"what they experienced during development.In contrast,the"silver spoon"hypothesis predicts that individuals who obtain better developmental resources will be generally superior.Here we tested these two hypotheses and examined the underlying hormonal mechanisms by manipulating the early dietary protein content of African clawed frogs(Xenopus laevis)for a year with a 2×2 factorial experimental design.We found that only a lowprotein food during development enhanced the vocal competition ability of male X.laevis,and that vocal dominance was associated with higher cortisol levels but not related with testosterone content.These results were not congruent with the"environmental matching"hypothesis or with the"silver spoon"hypothesis,suggesting the behavioral plasticity during development is more complex than our expectation in amphibians.
基金supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.32170504,31970422,and 31672305)to Guangzhan Fangthe grant from the Biodiversity Survey,Monitoring and Assessment Project of Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China(No.2019HB2096001006)to Baowei Zhang.
文摘Environmental noise has a significant negative impact on acoustic communication in most situations,as it influences the production,transmis-sion,and reception of acoustic signals.However,how animals respond to conspecific sounds when there is interference from environmental noise,and whether males and females display convergent behavioral responses in the face of noise masking remain poorly understood.In this study,we investigated the effects of conspecific male advertisement calls with different signal-to-noise ratios on male-male competition and female choice in the Anhui tree frog Rhacophorus zhoukaiyae using playback and phonotaxis experiments,respectively.The results showed that(1)female Anhui tree frogs preferentially selected the conspecific calls with higher SNR compared to calls with lower SNR;(2)males preferen-tially responded vocally to the conspecific calls with higher SNR compared to calls with lower SNR;and(3)males'competitive strategies were flexible in the face of noise interference.These results suggest that preferences of both sexes converge in outcome,and that male competitive strategies may depend on predictable female preferences.This study will provide an important basis for further research on decision-making in animals.
