Long-life partners or sex friends? Impact of parental pair bond on offspring personality

Bot, Océane Le; Lumineau, Sophie; Margerie, Emmanuel de; Pittet, Florent; Trabalon, Marie; Houdelier, Cécilia

doi:10.1242/jeb.108738

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 91 publications

(112 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…They have been important subjects for studying the hormonal and neural mechanisms for avian copulatory behavior and the consequences of copulation for fertilization success [ 16 , 29 ]. Although one recent study with Japanese quail interprets the results of separation-reunion tests as indicating pair bonds [ 34 ], allopreening and huddling have never been reported in this species [ 17 ]. Proximity in choice tests predicts copulation, and females aggregate to try to avoid copulatory attempts by non-preferred males [ 25 , 35 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pairing Behavior of the Monogamous King Quail, Coturnix chinensis

Adkins‐Regan

2016

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Animals with socially monogamous mating systems are valuable for discovering proximate mechanisms of prosocial behavior and close social relationships. Especially powerful are comparisons between related species that differ in monogamous tendency. Birds are the most socially monogamous vertebrates. Thus far most research on mechanisms of pairing has used zebra finches, which do not have a relative with a different mating system, however. The goal of the experiments reported here was to develop a new comparative avian system by studying the pairing behavior of a reportedly strongly monogamous quail, the king quail (Coturnix chinensis), a species in the same clade as the less monogamous Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica), the subject of much prior research. In Experiment 1 male-female pairs of king quail housed together were initially avoidant or aggressive but most rapidly progressed to allopreening and huddling. A separation-reunion paradigm reliably elicited both of these behaviors in males that had cohabited for one week. In Experiment 2 the allopreening and huddling behavior of males in cohabiting pairs was highly selective, and a majority of the males were aggressive toward a familiar female that was not the cohabitation partner. In Experiment 3 males were separated from their female cohabitation partners for 9–10 weeks and then given two-choice tests. All but one male spent more time near an unfamiliar female, which may have reflected aggression and shows recognition of and memory for the past pairing experience. Thus king quail show robust, selective and easy to measure pairing behavior that can be reliably elicited with simple separation-reunion testing procedures. Copulation is rarely seen during tests. The behavior of king quail is a striking contrast to that of Japanese quail, providing a new comparative system for discovering mechanisms of behavior related to close social relationships and monogamy.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pairing Behavior of the Monogamous King Quail, Coturnix chinensis

Adkins‐Regan

2016

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Social and physical perturbations during the laying period increased testosterone levels in quail's egg yolk, and chicks hatching from these eggs expressed higher emotivity in a novel environment and in social isolation (Guibert et al, 2011(Guibert et al, , 2010. On the other hand, female quail's positive interactions during the laying period produced less emotive and more social offspring (Le Bot et al, 2014). Particular attention has been paid to the influence of these hormonal modulations on the begging behaviour of altricial bird nestlings (for review Smiseth et al, 2011).…”

Section: A U T H O R ' S P R E -P R I N Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chicks from stressed females elicit overprotective behaviour in adoptive mother quail

Aigueperse

Houdelier

Bot

et al. 2020

Behavioural Processes

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Beyond the genetic links between mother and young, prenatal effects experienced by offspring can modulate their mother's behaviour and stress. Here we investigated the consequences of stress-induced prenatal maternal effects on quail chicks' behaviour and maternal behaviour. We evaluated how adoptive quail mothers (unstressed) raised chicks of females that had either been stressed (PS) or were non-stressed (NPS) during laying. We demonstrated previously that our social stress procedure during laying increases levels of egg yolk steroid and chicks' emotional reactivity during the postnatal period. We found that, compared to NPS mothers, PS mothers remained closer to their chicks, were aggressed and neglected them less, emitted more maternal vocalisations and called their chicks more when they were separated. Moreover, PS chicks made more requests on their mother. Our results show that mothers responded to chicks' behavioural changes caused by prenatal stress by adapting their maternal behaviour. As exemplified here, for the first time in birds, prenatal environment can affect postnatal maternal behaviour by changing their offspring's behaviour.

show abstract

No evidence for sex-specific effects of the maternal social environment on offspring development in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica)

Langen

Engelhardt

Goerlich-Jansson

2018

General and Comparative Endocrinology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The social environment of reproducing females can cause physiological changes, with consequences for reproductive investment and offspring development. These prenatal maternal effects are often found to be sex-specific and may have evolved as adaptations, maximizing fitness of male and female offspring for their future environment. Female hormone levels during reproduction are considered a potential mechanism regulating sex allocation in vertebrates: high maternal androgens have repeatedly been linked to increased investment in sons, whereas high glucocorticoid levels are usually related to increased investment in daughters. However, results are not consistent across studies and therefore still inconclusive. In Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica), we previously found that pair-housed females had higher plasma androgen levels and tended to have higher plasma corticosterone levels than group-housed females. In the current study we investigate whether these differences in maternal social environment and physiology affect offspring sex allocation and physiology. Counter to our expectations, we find no effects of the maternal social environment on offspring sex ratio, sex-specific mortality, growth, circulating androgen or corticosterone levels. Also, maternal corticosterone or androgen levels do not correlate with offspring sex ratio or mortality. The social environment during reproduction therefore does not necessarily modify sex allocation and offspring physiology, even if it causes differences in maternal physiology. We propose that maternal effects of the social environment strongly depend upon the type of social stimuli and the timing of changes in the social environment and hormones with respect to the reproductive cycle and meiosis.

show abstract

Long-life partners or sex friends? Impact of parental pair bond on offspring personality

Cited by 3 publications

References 91 publications

Pairing Behavior of the Monogamous King Quail, Coturnix chinensis

Pairing Behavior of the Monogamous King Quail, Coturnix chinensis

Chicks from stressed females elicit overprotective behaviour in adoptive mother quail

No evidence for sex-specific effects of the maternal social environment on offspring development in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About