Forebrain AVT and courtship in a fish with male alternative reproductive tactics

Grober, Matthew S.; George, Andrew A.; Watkins, Kelly K.; Carneiro, Luís Alberto; Oliveira, Rui Filipe

doi:10.1016/s0361-9230(01)00704-3

Cited by 80 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…These results are consistent with results found in other fish species (Foran and Bass, 1998) including blennies (Grober et al, 2002). Recent AVT injection studies in other telosts have provided insight into the role of this neuropeptide in the modulation of aggression and courtship.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…However, we did show a significant overall effect of body size on AVT cells and as such need to control for body size when comparing reproductive morphs. Our method (to divide brain cell characteristics by body size) has been used in previous studies examining brain cells in sexually polymorphic fish and provided novel insights into the development of male alternative reproductive phenotypes (Grober et al, 1994(Grober et al, , 2002.…”

Section: Comparison Of Total Avt-ir Cell Number Among Nesting Males mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Neurochemical correlates of male polymorphism and alternative reproductive tactics in the Azorean rock-pool blenny, Parablennius parvicornis

Miranda

Oliveira

Carneiro

et al. 2003

General and Comparative Endocrinology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the common Azorean rock-pool blenny, Parablennius parvicornis, males exhibit alternative reproductive morphologies: (1) larger males defend nest sites, provide parental care, have anal glands (involved in pheromone release), testicular glands, and low gonad:body weight ratio (GSI) and (2) smaller, younger, males do not defend nests, have reduced glands and high GSI. These smaller non-nesting males behave as satellites (associated with nests) or sneakers (moving among nests), attempting to achieve parasitic fertilizations via sperm competition. In non-mammals, arginine vasotocin (AVT) is a key hypothalamic peptide involved in the control of reproductive behavior and physiology, and several fish species that exhibit alternative male reproductive morphs show polymorphism in AVT brain chemistry. We conducted an immunocytochemical study to generate comparative data on this intertidal blenny. Our analysis showed no difference in AVT-immunoreactive cell number or size between the male morphs, which is consistent with studies on other fish, including blennies. The number of AVT cells was positively correlated to fish body mass, while cell size showed no such relation. If corrected for body mass, the smaller non-nesting males have significantly more cells than the large nesting males. Our data suggest that the size and number of forebrain AVT cells develops initially to allow for reproduction in the young non-nesting males and this pattern does not appear to change when males take on the nesting morphotype later in life. This result appears to be consistent in many fishes with alternative male morphotypes.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Comparison Of Total Avt-ir Cell Number Among Nesting Males mentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurochemical correlates of male polymorphism and alternative reproductive tactics in the Azorean rock-pool blenny, Parablennius parvicornis

Miranda

Oliveira

Carneiro

et al. 2003

General and Comparative Endocrinology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Activates some aspects of sexual behavior é in posterior POA of territorial cichlid males, but é anterior POA of non-territorial [21]; ê density of avt mRNA in POA in parental blenny males [22] Gonadotropin releasing hormone (gnrh)…”

Section: Proposed Candidate Genes Function Relationship To Artsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain Transcriptional Profiles of Male Alternative Reproductive Tactics and Females in Bluegill Sunfish

Partridge

MacManes

Knapp

et al. 2015

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) are one of the classic systems for studying male alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) in teleost fishes. In this species, there are two distinct life histories: parental and cuckolder, encompassing three reproductive tactics, parental, satellite, and sneaker. The parental life history is fixed, whereas individuals who enter the cuckolder life history transition from sneaker to satellite tactic as they grow. For this study, we used RNAseq to characterize the brain transcriptome of the three male tactics and females during spawning to identify gene ontology (GO) categories and potential candidate genes associated with each tactic. We found that sneaker males had higher levels of gene expression differentiation compared to the other two male tactics. Sneaker males also had higher expression in ionotropic glutamate receptor genes, specifically AMPA receptors, compared to other males, which may be important for increased spatial working memory while attempting to cuckold parental males at their nests. Larger differences in gene expression also occurred among male tactics than between males and females. We found significant expression differences in several candidate genes that were previously identified in other species with ARTs and suggest a previously undescribed role for cAMP-responsive element modulator (crem) in influencing parental male behaviors during spawning.

show abstract

“…In the peacock blenny, in which sex-role reversal occurs in courtship behavior (i.e., females and sneaker males are the major courting phenotypes, Almada et al, 1995), and thus the expression of courtship behavior is decoupled from the bourgeois tactic, AVT mRNA expression on a per cell basis (using in situ hybridization) is higher in both females and sneaker males than in nest-holders, suggesting that mRNA levels are correlated with the expression of courtship behavior rather than with the alternative morph (in fact, there are no differences in AVT-ir cell size or numbers between the two morphs; see Grober et al, 2002). Finally, no differences were found between alternative male morphs in the rock-pool blenny both on the absolute size and number of AVT-ir cells in the POA (Miranda et al, 2003).…”

Section: Avt and Intra-sexual Variation In Reproductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intra-sexual variation in male reproduction in teleost fish: a comparative approach

Oliveira

Ros

Gonçalves

2005

Hormones and Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The occurrence of intra-sexual variation in reproduction is a widespread phenomenon in teleosts. One such form of variation consists in the occurrence of alternative male types: males that invest resources in mate attraction and males that exploit the investment of the former males, by trying to sneak fertilizations during spawning. These alternative reproductive tactics can be classified according to their plasticity during the life span of the individuals (i.e., fixed vs. sequential vs. reversible). Furthermore, the differences between morphs within a given species may involve a set of different traits, including reproductive behavior, the differentiation of male morphological traits, and the patterns of gonad tissue allocation and the differentiation of gonadal accessory glands. In this paper, we review the available data on four species exhibiting different types of intra-sexual plasticity in reproduction that have been studied in our lab. The data on the proximate mechanisms, androgens and forebrain arginine-vasotocin (AVT), underlying these alternative tactics suggest that between-morph differences in androgen levels, especially in 11-ketotestosterone, are especially present in species where the alternative male types have evolved morphological traits that are tactic-specific (i.e., sexual polymorphisms) and that differences in AVT appear to be related to between-morph differences in the expression of courtship behavior. Therefore, this comparative approach leads us to propose that the different endocrine systems are involved in the differentiation of different sets of traits that make up alternative phenotypes, and that the differentiation of alternative tactics is not controlled by a single endocrine system (e.g., androgens).

show abstract

Forebrain AVT and courtship in a fish with male alternative reproductive tactics

Cited by 80 publications

References 8 publications

Neurochemical correlates of male polymorphism and alternative reproductive tactics in the Azorean rock-pool blenny, Parablennius parvicornis

Neurochemical correlates of male polymorphism and alternative reproductive tactics in the Azorean rock-pool blenny, Parablennius parvicornis

Brain Transcriptional Profiles of Male Alternative Reproductive Tactics and Females in Bluegill Sunfish

Intra-sexual variation in male reproduction in teleost fish: a comparative approach

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About