Intra- and intersexual selection on male body size in the annual killifish Austrolebias charrua

Passos, Carlos; Tassino, Bettina; Loureiro, Marcelo; Rosenthal, Gil G.

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2013.01.008

Cited by 40 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Males are constantly ready to mate and actively seek females to initiate spawning. The Nothobranchius courtship sequence is depauperate compared to other killifish (Passos et al, 2013 b ). A detailed description of N. guentheri reproductive behaviour is given by Haas (1976 a ).…”

Section: Distribution Ecology and Population Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

From the bush to the bench: the annual Nothobranchius fishes as a new model system in biology

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

African annual fishes from the genus Nothobranchius are small teleosts that inhabit temporary water bodies subject to annual desiccation due to the alternation of the monsoon seasons. Given their unique biology, these fish have emerged as a model taxon in several biological disciplines. Their increasing popularity stems from the extremely short lifespan that is the result of their specific life-history adaptations and is retained under laboratory conditions. Nothobranchius furzeri, the most popular laboratory species, is the vertebrate species with the shortest lifespan recorded in captivity. In the laboratory, adults of different Nothobranchius species and populations live between 3 and 18 months and, notably, there is a negative correlation between the captive lifespan of a species and the aridity of their habitat. Their short lifespan is coupled to rapid age-dependent functional decline and expression of cellular and molecular changes comparable to those observed in other vertebrates, including humans. The recent development of transgenesis in this species makes it possible to insert specific constructs into their genome, and the establishment of transgenic lines is facilitated by their very rapid generation time, which can be as short as 1 month. This makes Nothobranchius species particularly suited for investigating biological and molecular aspects of ageing and ageing-associated dysfunctions. At the same time, they also represent a unique model taxon to investigate the evolution of life-history adaptations and their genetic architecture. We review their natural history, including phylogenetic relationships, distribution in relation to habitat conditions and natural selection for differential longevity, population structure and demography, and life cycle with emphasis on diapause that may occur at three stages during embryonic development. We further critically evaluate their use as a laboratory model for understanding the evolution of a rapid ageing rate and its consequences for other life-history traits, for cellular, molecular and integrative traits associated with the ageing process, high incidence of neoplasias, their utility for genome-wide gene-expression studies, and as a model for quantitative genetics. We summarize recent achievements in fostering Nothobranchius species as a widely applicable model system, including an annotated transcriptome, successful transgenesis, and existence of viable inbred lines. We compare the conditions they experience in the wild and in captivity and suggest that they are an ideal taxon to investigate natural genetic variation in a laboratory setting. We conclude that Nothobranchius species -and N. furzeri in particular -could become a unique model taxon that bridges interests in ecological and biomedical research. We hope that a conceptual and methodological integration of these two branches of biology will provide important new insights.

show abstract

Section: Distribution Ecology and Population Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

From the bush to the bench: the annual Nothobranchius fishes as a new model system in biology

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Female Austrolebias prefer to mate with larger males [13]. There are two, perhaps mutually reinforcing reasons why we might expect this preference to decline over the course of a breeding season.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Seasonal Variation in Female Mate Choice and Operational Sex Ratio in Wild Populations of an Annual Fish, Austrolebias reicherti

et al. 2014

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The intensity of mating competition and the potential benefits for female of mating with certain males can be influenced by several extrinsic factors, such that behavioral decisions can be highly context-dependent. Short-lived species with a single reproductive season are a unique model to study context-sensitive mating decisions. Through exhaustive sampling in the field and simultaneous choice tests in the laboratory, we evaluated operational sex ratio (OSR) and female mate choice at the beginning and end of the reproductive season in the annual killifish Austrolebias reicherti. We found seasonal change in both OSR and female mate choice. At the start of the reproductive season the OSR did not deviate from parity, and females preferred larger males. Later in the reproductive season, while the proportion of males in the ponds decreased, females became unselective with respect to male size. The particular biological cycle of annual killifish, where both life expectancy and mating opportunities decline sharply over a short timescale, could account for the seasonal change in female choice. Reduction in choosiness could arise from diminished reproductive prospects due to a decline in male availability. Moreover, as the end of the season approaches, any benefits of choosiness are presumably reduced: a female’s fitness will be higher if she mates with any male than if she forgoes reproduction and dies. Future work will disentangle the mechanisms underlying seasonal changes in mating preferences, notably direct responses to demographic factors, environmental cues, or intrinsic changes during development.

show abstract

“…Yet, this effect is predicted to dominate in the absence of predation and weaken with predation that typically represents a higher risk for larger (and not smaller) males (Trexler et al, 1994;Quinn et al, 2001). We speculate that smaller males were forced to occupy less favourable habitats farther from the vegetated shelters and in shallower water as an outcome of male-male competition for access to superior breeding territories (Passos et al, 2013). Shallow and open microhabitats are more vulnerable to avian predation (Schlosser, 1987) and A. minuano (like all other annual killifish) breed daily (García et al, 2008;Passos et al, 2015), making this pressure persistent.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, larger males may also be more fragile than smaller males. The increased susceptibility to mortality in larger males may be linked to trade-offs between their rapid early growth and survival (Lee et al, 2013;Hooper et al, 2017), costly courtship behaviour (Andersson, 1994;Passos et al, 2015), male-male competition to maintain their position in the dominance hierarchy (Passos et al, 2013) and generally higher cost of maintenance of their larger bodies (Blanckenhorn, 2000). Yet, this effect is predicted to dominate in the absence of predation and weaken with predation that typically represents a higher risk for larger (and not smaller) males (Trexler et al, 1994;Quinn et al, 2001).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Avian predation mediates size-specific survival in a Neotropical annual fish: a field experiment

Reichard

Lanés

Polačik

et al. 2018

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Predation and population density have fundamental size-and sex-specific effects on individual survival and demographic parameters. Given the overlap and interactions between different age cohorts in natural populations, separating the factors related to differential survival and growth based on longitudinal field-collected data is problematic. Using a Neotropical annual fish (Austrolebias minuano) with a single age cohort per generation, we used replicated field enclosures to experimentally test the roles of avian predation and fish population density on survival and growth over adult lifespan. We found that mortality risk was higher in larger males and smaller females when predation was experimentally excluded. Exposure to avian predation eliminated this sex-specific effect of body size on survival. No overall sex difference in survival was found in the experiment, despite a female-biased sex ratio in natural populations. Individually based growth rates were highest in enclosures at low population density with no predation risk. Overall, we demonstrate that annual fish suffer high sex-dependent size-specific mortality that is more strongly related to predation than to density-dependent processes. This has important implications for our understanding of the evolution of senescence and other life history traits in annual fishes.

show abstract

Intra- and intersexual selection on male body size in the annual killifish Austrolebias charrua

Cited by 40 publications

References 41 publications

From the bush to the bench: the annual Nothobranchius fishes as a new model system in biology

From the bush to the bench: the annual Nothobranchius fishes as a new model system in biology

Seasonal Variation in Female Mate Choice and Operational Sex Ratio in Wild Populations of an Annual Fish, Austrolebias reicherti

Avian predation mediates size-specific survival in a Neotropical annual fish: a field experiment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About