Male skin color signals direct and indirect benefits in a species with biparental care

Montoya, Bibiana; Torres, Roxana

doi:10.1093/beheco/aru204

Cited by 22 publications

(20 citation statements)

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“…These results suggest that developing colorful ornaments, particularly during the period just before egg laying, might entail oxidative costs. In the brown booby, male skin color is associated with direct and indirect benefits for females (Montoya and Torres, 2015); hence, male gular color likely functions as a sexual signal. Additionally, the negative relationship between green and UV chromas agrees with the idea that skin color may result from the combined effect of a structural color (UV) and the allocation of Table 2.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…the peak wavelength in the green range of male gular color; relationship of male gular color within swapped clutches r p =−0.50 P=0.008; see Montoya and Torres, 2015). In the control group (n=18, 12 two-egg and 6 one-egg clutches), the swapping procedure was simulated, but clutches were returned to their original nests (Montoya and Torres, 2015). Nests were monitored every 5 days during incubation, and daily after hatching until the chicks were 15 days old.…”

Section: Cross-fosteringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Control and cross-fostered clutches did not differ in laying date (F 1,41 =0.37, P=0.55) or clutch size (χ to address another research question for a different study, chicks were cross-fostered by males that had the greatest difference from their genetic fathers in gular reflectance at 540 nm (i.e. the peak wavelength in the green range of male gular color; relationship of male gular color within swapped clutches r p =−0.50 P=0.008; see Montoya and Torres, 2015). In the control group (n=18, 12 two-egg and 6 one-egg clutches), the swapping procedure was simulated, but clutches were returned to their original nests (Montoya and Torres, 2015).…”

Section: Cross-fosteringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gular skin color in both sexes has been found to be carotenoid-dependent (the presence of carotenoids was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography; B.M., C. Flores and R.T., unpublished data). Males with greener gular color attend their offspring longer, feed them more and have chicks with higher body mass gain, while chicks of genetic fathers with greener gulars show higher structural growth, suggesting that gular color is an honest sexual signal that indicates both direct and indirect benefits to females (Montoya and Torres, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Oxidative stress during courtship affects male and female reproductive effort differentially in a wild bird with biparental care

Montoya

Valverde

Rojas

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Oxidative stress has been suggested as one of the physiological mechanisms modulating reproductive effort, including investment in mate choice. Here, we evaluated whether oxidative stress influences breeding decisions by acting as a cost of or constraint on reproduction in the brown booby (Sula leucogaster), a long-lived seabird with prolonged biparental care. We found that during courtship, levels of lipid peroxidation (LP) of males and females were positively associated with gular skin color, a trait presumably used in mate choice, while levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were higher as laying approached and in early breeding pairs. Evidence of a constraining effect of oxidative stress for females was suggested by the fact that females with higher ROS during courtship laid smaller first eggs and had chicks with lower rates of body mass gain, and higher female LP was associated with lower offspring attendance time. No evidence of an oxidative cost of parental effort was found; from courtship to parental care, levels of ROS in males and females decreased, and changes in LP levels were non-significant. Finally, using a cross-fostering experiment we found that offspring ROS was unrelated to rearing and genetic parents' ROS. Interestingly, offspring LP was positively associated with the LP during courtship of both the rearing parents and the genetic father, suggesting that offspring LP might have both a genetic and an environmental component. Hence, in the brown booby, oxidative stress may be a cost of investment in reproductive traits before egg laying and constrain females' investment in eggs and parental care.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cross-fosteringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cross-fosteringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Oxidative stress during courtship affects male and female reproductive effort differentially in a wild bird with biparental care

Montoya

Valverde

Rojas

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…However, in this experimental 527 context, attractiveness was actually unrelated to genetic quality and thus daughters from 528 matings with unattractive males happened to fare better than expected. Alternatively, or in 529 addition, since parents in the green-ringed group provisioned nestlings more frequently, the 530 best strategy was to invest less at the egg stage but more at the nestling rearing stage (but 531 see (Montoya and Torres, 2015 green-ring group and the shaded bars of birds raised by foster parents in the red-ring group.…”

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confidence: 99%

Paternal attractiveness and the effects of differential allocation of parental investment

et al. 2016

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1The Differential Allocation Hypothesis (DAH) predicts that an individual should vary its 2 reproductive investment depending on the attractiveness of its mate. A generalised version 3 of the DAH also makes explicit that investment can be positive, i.e. higher for the offspring 4 of attractive males which are also predicted to be of higher quality, or negative, i.e. higher 5 for offspring of unattractive males thus compensating for inheriting poor paternal genes for 6 example. Moreover, investment can be allocated by the father as well as the mother. Few 7 studies have quantified both parental investment across reproductive stages and effects on 8 offspring survival and fecundity. Here, we tested the DAH by using red leg rings to increase 9 the attractiveness of male zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata and green leg rings to decrease 10 their attractiveness. All males within an aviary were given the same coloured ring to control 11 for assortative mating between treatments. Eggs were cross-fostered between and within 12 treatments to allow the differentiation of effects of egg investment and nestling-rearing 13 investment. Brood and clutch sizes were standardized. Both positive and negative changes 14 in investment were observed: Eggs from the red ringed group had higher yolk to albumen 15 ratios than eggs from green-ringed fathers. Cross-fostering revealed that nestlings from eggs 16 laid and incubated by red-ringed parents had higher hatching weights than those in the 17 green-ringed group. Both parents in the green-ringed group fed nestlings more frequently 18 than red-ringed parents. Ring colour was merely an experimental manipulation of male 19 attractiveness; so as red and green ringed males should be of the same quality on average, 20we might expect additional investment to result in elevated offspring quality. Offspring

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A reexamination of theoretical arguments that indirect selection on mate preference is likely to be weaker than direct selection

Fry

2022

Evolution Letters

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Female preference for male ornaments or displays can evolve by indirect selection resulting from genetic benefits of mate choices, or by direct selection resulting from nongenetic benefits or selection on sensory systems occurring in other contexts. In an influential paper, Kirkpatrick and Barton used a good‐genes model and evolutionary rates estimated from the fossil record to conclude that indirect selection on preference is likely to be weak compared to typical strengths of direct selection. More recent authors have extrapolated from Kirkpatrick and Barton's conclusions to suggest that the presence of preference‐trait genetic correlations in equations for indirect but not direct selection gives a purely theoretical basis to the conclusion that the former is likely to be weaker than the latter. Here, I challenge these views, and argue that the relative importance of direct and indirect selection on preference is an empirical issue that defies simple generalizations. First, I show that Kirkpatrick and Barton based their conclusion on a questionable claim about typical rates of evolution due to direct selection. Second, I argue that claiming that direct selection on preference is stronger than indirect selection because only equations for the latter contain a genetic correlation mistakes the mathematical simplicity with which direct selection is usually represented for evidence regarding its magnitude. By comparing a simple equation for the selection response of preference caused by somatic (“direct”) benefits to Kirkpatrick and Barton's result for the response to indirect selection, I show that indirect selection on preference is not inherently weaker than direct selection. I also point out an important but overlooked reason why selection on preference under the sensory bias hypothesis can be expected to be less effective in the long run than that from either somatic or genetic benefits of mate choices.

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Male skin color signals direct and indirect benefits in a species with biparental care

Cited by 22 publications

References 66 publications

Oxidative stress during courtship affects male and female reproductive effort differentially in a wild bird with biparental care

Oxidative stress during courtship affects male and female reproductive effort differentially in a wild bird with biparental care

Paternal attractiveness and the effects of differential allocation of parental investment

A reexamination of theoretical arguments that indirect selection on mate preference is likely to be weaker than direct selection

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