Primary and secondary sex ratio manipulation by zebra finches

Kilner, Rebecca M.

doi:10.1006/anbe.1998.0775

Cited by 247 publications

(187 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Interestingly, effects on size were strongly sex biased, with females doing worse than males when their mothers were reared in large experimental broods. The findings are consistent with previous evidence that female nestlings are more vulnerable to nutritional stress (Bradbury & Blakey 1998;Kilner 1998;Martins 2004;Rutstein et al 2004) and show that such effects can even last into the next generation (also see Gorman & Nager 2004). Since females raised in enlarged broods produce eggs with lower testosterone levels , it may be that our present findings were mediated through this mechanism, together with a possibly differential effect of yolk androgen in male and female embryos (Gil 2003).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Transgenerational body size effects caused by early developmental stress in zebra finches

Naguib

Gil

2005

Biol. Lett.

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The nutritional and social conditions that individuals experience during early development can have profound effects on their morphology, physiology, behaviour and life history. Experimental increases in brood size in birds can result in reduced offspring condition and survival, indicating that developmental deficits in enlarged broods have negative fitness consequences within the affected generation. To study long-term effects (i.e. transgenerational effects of developmental stress), we conducted a two-step breeding experiment in which we manipulated early developmental conditions in zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata. We raised zebra finches by manipulating brood sizes and controlled for maternal and genetic effects by cross-fostering. In a previous study, we showed that offspring condition and body size decreased with increasing brood size. Here we show that this effect was carried over to the next generation. Body size in nestlings and at nutritional independence was affected by the brood size in which the mothers were raised. Female offspring did significantly worse than male offspring when the mother had been raised in large broods, suggesting a sex-specific influence of maternal effects. These findings link early developmental stress in females with the phenotype of the next generation via maternal effects.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Transgenerational body size effects caused by early developmental stress in zebra finches

Naguib

Gil

2005

Biol. Lett.

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“…Given the higher mortality rates in female zebra finches under harsh environmental conditions (Bradbury and Blakey 1998;de Kogel 1997b;Kilner 1998), we suggest that mortality rates were biased towards females with relatively weak immune capacity such that the remaining females mounted higher immune responses, on average (see also Møller and Saino 2004). Alternatively, seeing that immunity is a highly plastic trait that varies sex-specifically and in a context-dependent way (Love et al 2008), resource allocation trade-offs between immunity and other functions may differ between sexes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Early developmental conditions can further be expected to differentially affect adult innate immunity in male and female zebra finches, as the latter have been shown to be more negatively affected by harsh rearing conditions (e.g. Bradbury and Blakey 1998;de Kogel 1997b;Kilner 1998;Martins 2004;Verhulst et al 2006), and inflammatory and humoral immune responses have been shown to vary between sexes and contexts (Love et al 2008;McGraw and Ardia 2005). Furthermore, increased foraging costs in adulthood result in physiological adjustments to save energy , and might therefore also affect innate immunity because of the associated energetic costs (Klasing 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of early developmental conditions on innate immunity are only evident under favourable adult conditions in zebra finches

Coster

Verhulst

Koetsier

et al. 2011

Naturwissenschaften

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Long-term effects of unfavourable conditions during development can be expected to depend on the quality of the environment experienced by the same individuals during adulthood. Yet, in the majority of studies, long-term effects of early developmental conditions have been assessed under favourable adult conditions only. The immune system might be particularly vulnerable to early environmental conditions as its development, maintenance and use are thought to be energetically costly. Here, we studied the interactive effects of favourable and unfavourable conditions during nestling and adult stages on innate immunity (lysis and agglutination scores) of captive male and female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Nestling environmental conditions were manipulated by a brood size experiment, while a foraging cost treatment was imposed on the same individuals during adulthood. This combined treatment showed that innate immunity of adult zebra finches is affected by their early developmental conditions and varies between both sexes. Lysis scores, but not agglutination scores, were higher in individuals raised in small broods and in males. However, these effects were only present in birds that experienced low foraging costs. This study shows that the quality of the adult environment may shape the long-term consequences of early developmental conditions on innate immunity, as long-term effects of nestling environment were only evident under favourable adult conditions

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“…Differential sex allocation has been intensively investigated in model species of songbirds in captivity (notably the zebra finch), where it is easy to experimentally control male physical traits and female conditions. However, evidence for whether or not mothers invest more in sons than daughters under favorable breeding circumstances (e.g., better nutrition or mates) remains controversial especially in the zebra finch (Burley, 1981;Burley, 1986;Kilner, 1998;Rutstein et al, 2004;McGraw et al, 2005;Rutstein et al, 2005b). In addition, laying sequence, which is associated with sibling rivalry resulting from asynchronous hatching, can have confounding effects on differential sex allocation (Rutkowska & Cichoń, 2002;Rutstein et al, 2005a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because female zebra finches are more vulnerable than males during development (De Kogel & Prijs, 1996;Kilner, 1998), female offspring are more costly. Hence it can be adaptive for mothers to produce the less costly sex (males) under some unfavorable reproductive situations, and vice versa.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential allocation in relation to mate song quality in the Bengalese finch

Soma

Okanoya

2013

Behav

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Postmating sexual selection plays an important part in the evolution of secondary sexual characters. Based on differential allocation theory that predicts biased reproductive investment of females depending on the attractiveness of mates, a number of previous studies have shown that egg production is related in various ways to ornamental sexual traits of males, but evidence for behavioral sexual traits is less abundant. In this study we examine such maternal effects in relation to birdsong.Because the Bengalese finch is a monomorphic songbird, courtship song serves a key role in mate choice. To take into account individual female differences in egg production performance, we sequentially paired naïve, captive, female Bengalese finches to two different males, and investigated if their reproductive investment (clutch size, egg mass and hatchling sex ratio) was related to the song traits of their mates. We found that clutch size and egg mass were highly repeatable within individual females while sex ratio was not. Despite the inflexibility of egg mass within each female, egg mass increased when females were mated to males with longer songs. In addition, we found a non-significant weak tendency toward male-biased sex ratio in relation to longer song duration of mates. Our findings suggest that females mated to better mates adjusted their reproductive investment by producing heavier eggs and possibly offspring of the more costly sex.

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Primary and secondary sex ratio manipulation by zebra finches

Cited by 247 publications

References 45 publications

Transgenerational body size effects caused by early developmental stress in zebra finches

Transgenerational body size effects caused by early developmental stress in zebra finches

Effects of early developmental conditions on innate immunity are only evident under favourable adult conditions in zebra finches

Differential allocation in relation to mate song quality in the Bengalese finch

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