Effects of Androgens on Male Sexual Behavior and Secondary Sex Characters in the Explosively Breeding Spadefoot Toad,Scaphiopus couchii

Harvey, L. A.; Propper, Catherine R.

doi:10.1006/hbeh.1997.1354

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Androgen concentrations correlate with reproductive behaviors during the breeding season in many amphibian species. Testosterone (T) and/or dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels are highest during the breeding season in several male anurans [23,24,36] and urodeles [12,51]. Additionally, plasma T levels correlate with calling behavior in anurans ( [23,35,41,50,59].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Arginine vasotocin induces calling behavior with a female social stimulus and interacts with gonadotropins to affect sexual behaviors in male Xenopus tropicalis

Miranda

Searcy

Propper

2015

Physiology & Behavior

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Arginine vasotocin (AVT) and the mammalian homologue, arginine vasopressin (AVP), modulate vertebrate social behaviors, including vocalizations in male anurans. To study the impact of AVT and social stimuli on calling in male Xenopus tropicalis, we injected males with vehicle, 1 μg, or 10 μg AVT and recorded vocalizations under four social contexts (no stimulus, with male call playback, with a female, and with call playback and a female). More males called when injected with 10 μg AVT. Furthermore, calling males called only when paired with a female. We identified four call types: long fast trill; short fast trill; slow trill; or click. Next, we injected males with vehicle, 10 μg, or 20 μg AVT and recorded vocalizations with or without a female. AVT treatment did not affect calling in this experiment, but we confirmed that more males, regardless of AVT treatment, called when a female was present. Then we evaluated the effect of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) on male sexual behavior. 20 IU hCG elevated behavior compared to controls while the 10 IU hCG treatment group was not different from either treatment. Last, we examined the effect of AVT on hCG-induced reproductive behavior. Males were injected with 10 IU hCG or with 10 IU hCG and 20 μg AVT. Males receiving hCG and AVT clasped and called significantly more than males receiving hCG only. Our results suggest that AVT and a female stimulus induce vocalizations in a male pipid anuran, X. tropicalis, and the interaction between gonadotropins and neurohormones influences reproductive behaviors in this anuran amphibian.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Arginine vasotocin induces calling behavior with a female social stimulus and interacts with gonadotropins to affect sexual behaviors in male Xenopus tropicalis

Miranda

Searcy

Propper

2015

Physiology & Behavior

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“…Moreover, the expression of diverse male SSTs varies with a populations’ breeding cycle [15–18]. Some male SSTs, such as ornamental plumage of birds, are highly expressed during the breeding season [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some male SSTs, such as ornamental plumage of birds, are highly expressed during the breeding season [19]. Other SSTs, such as the nuptial pads of amphibians, nuptial coloration of fishes, or nuptial spines of Leptobrachium anurans, only appear during the breeding season [15–18]. Seasonal changes in plasma sex steroid hormones, especially in testosterone, are important factors that regulate the growth of seasonally developed male sexual traits [16, 18, 20, 21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other SSTs, such as the nuptial pads of amphibians, nuptial coloration of fishes, or nuptial spines of Leptobrachium anurans, only appear during the breeding season [15–18]. Seasonal changes in plasma sex steroid hormones, especially in testosterone, are important factors that regulate the growth of seasonally developed male sexual traits [16, 18, 20, 21]. The increase in testosterone (or related androgen) in males could trigger the expression of such traits, whereas low levels of this hormone would be insufficient to trigger its activation [18, 19, 22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Seasonal changes in plasma sex steroid hormones, especially in testosterone, are important factors that regulate the growth of seasonally developed male sexual traits [16, 18, 20, 21]. The increase in testosterone (or related androgen) in males could trigger the expression of such traits, whereas low levels of this hormone would be insufficient to trigger its activation [18, 19, 22]. Recent studies have demonstrated that the insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) pathway is a widely conserved physiological mechanism regulating the development of pronounced sexual traits across animal taxa [23, 24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transcriptome analysis reveals the genetic basis underlying the seasonal development of keratinized nuptial spines in Leptobrachium boringii

Zhang

Guo

et al. 2016

BMC Genomics

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BackgroundThe expression of sexually selected traits often varies with populations’ breeding cycles in many animals. The elucidation of mechanisms underlying the expression of such traits is a research topic in evolutionary biology; however, the genetic basis of the seasonal development of their expression remains unknown. Male Leptobrachium boringii develop keratinized nuptial spines on their upper jaw during the breeding season that fall off when the breeding season ends. To illuminate the genetic basis for the expression of this trait and its seasonal development, we assessed the de novo transcriptome for L. boringii using brain, testis and upper jaw skin and compared gene expression profiles of these tissues between two critical periods of the spine growth cycle.ResultsWe identified 94,900 unigenes in our transcriptome. Among them, 2,131 genes were differentially expressed between the breeding period when the spines developed and the post-breeding period when the spines were sloughed. An increased number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in the upper jaw skin compared with the testis and brain. In the upper jaw skin, DEGs were mainly enriched in cytosolic part, peptidase inhibitor activity and peptidase regulator activity based on GO enrichment analysis and in glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, ribosome biogenesis in eukaryotes and retinol metabolism based on KEGG enrichment analysis. In the other two tissues, DEGs were primarily involved in the cell cycle, DNA replication and melatonin production. Specifically, insulin/insulin-like growth factor and sex steroid hormone-related DEGs were identified in the upper jaw skin, indicating . The expression variation of IGF2 and estrogen-related genes may be the main factors regulating the seasonal development of the spines.ConclusionsOur study provides a list of potential genes involved in the regulation of seasonal development of nuptial spines in L. boringii. This is the first transcriptome survey of seasonally developed sexually selected traits for non-model amphibian species, and candidate genes provided here may provide valuable information for further studies of L. boringii. Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-016-3295-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Hormonal induction of thumb pads and the evolution of secondary sexual characteristics of the Southeast Asian fanged frog,Rana blythii

1997

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The fanged frogs of Southeast Asia do not express most of the hormone‐dependent secondary sexual characteristics such as thumb pads that are common to other ranid frogs. At the same point in the evolutionary history of the group that these androgen‐mediated characteristics are lost, male parental care first evolves. This behavior is often correlated with low androgen levels. Prior work indicates that in one of the fanged frogs, Rana blythii, adult males have low androgen levels compared to North Temperate species of Rana. This leads to the question of whether these low androgen levels are related to the unusual male parental care and the lack of expression of the thumb pad and other hormone‐dependent secondary sexual characteristics in this species. We tested that hypothesis by examining the effects of exogenous dihydrotestosterone supplements on the expression of thumb pads in Rana blythii. Dihydrotestosterone injections appear to stimulate the expression of the thumb pad in R. blythii. These results support the hypothesis that low androgen levels are involved in the loss of the thumb pad in R. blythii. This work provides an example of how mapping characters on phylogenies can be a powerful approach for gaining insights into proximate physiological mechanisms of selection at the evolutionary level. J. Exp. Zool. 279:587–596, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

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Effects of Androgens on Male Sexual Behavior and Secondary Sex Characters in the Explosively Breeding Spadefoot Toad,Scaphiopus couchii

Cited by 17 publications

References 28 publications

Arginine vasotocin induces calling behavior with a female social stimulus and interacts with gonadotropins to affect sexual behaviors in male Xenopus tropicalis

Arginine vasotocin induces calling behavior with a female social stimulus and interacts with gonadotropins to affect sexual behaviors in male Xenopus tropicalis

Transcriptome analysis reveals the genetic basis underlying the seasonal development of keratinized nuptial spines in Leptobrachium boringii

Hormonal induction of thumb pads and the evolution of secondary sexual characteristics of the Southeast Asian fanged frog,Rana blythii

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