<scp>MHC</scp>‐mediated sexual selection on birdsong: Generic polymorphism, particular alleles and acoustic signals

Garamszegi, László Zsolt; Zagalska-Neubauer, Magdalena; Cañal, David; Blázi, György; Laczi, Miklós; Szöllősi, Eszter; Vaskúti, Éva; Török, János; Zsebők, Sándor

doi:10.1111/mec.14703

Cited by 12 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…However, our study gives rise to additional unsolved questions regarding MHC-mediated mate choice, which deserves future study in this endangered species. For instance, colour, olfaction, acoustics and other morphological traits are reliable signals of MHC genes (Penn 2002; Olsson et al 2003; Overath et al 2014; Garamszegi et al 2018), suggesting fruitful avenues of further research to understand whether such traits also reflect MHC in Chinese alligators. Intriguingly, genome sequence analysis has demonstrated robust olfactory, visual and aural systems for Chinese alligators (Wan et al 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MHC class I diversity predicts non-random mating in Chinese alligators (Alligator sinensis)

Han¹,

Sun²,

Yang³

et al. 2019

Heredity

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The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has several important roles in kin recognition, pathogen resistance and mate selection. Research in fish, birds and mammals has suggested that individuals optimise MHC diversity, and therefore offspring fitness, when choosing mates. In reptiles, however, it is unclear whether female mate choice is based on genome-wide genetic characteristics such as microsatellite DNA loci, particular functional-trait loci (e.g., MHC) or both, and MHC's effects on mate choice remain relatively understudied. Herein, we used 13 microsatellite loci and two MHC class I loci to investigate female mate choice of Chinese alligators (Alligator sinensis) in the semi-natural condition. We also determined correlations between the MHC genotype of breeding males and male reproductive success. We found that MHC-heterozygous males harbour a greater reproductive success, which probably is the reason that these males are more preferred by the females than MHC-homozygous males. Furthermore, the MHC class I amino-acid distance and functional distance of true mating pairs were higher compared with those of randomly sampled pairs. Analysis of microsatellites revealed that, despite mate choice, females did not completely avoid inbreeding. These findings are the first evidence of MHC-associated mate choice in Chinese alligators, suggesting that females may adopt different mating strategies after assessing the MHC characteristics of potential mates.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MHC class I diversity predicts non-random mating in Chinese alligators (Alligator sinensis)

Han¹,

Sun²,

Yang³

et al. 2019

Heredity

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“…After these steps, individuals could be assigned with a repertoire that was comparable within-and between individuals. Detailed methods of song recording and song analysis are described by Garamszegi et al (2018).…”

Section: Polymorph Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of positive frequency-dependent learning, learning mistakes, and immigration on complex cultures–Validation on the song of collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis) by individual-based modeling

Barta¹,

Garamszegi²,

Scheuring³

et al. 2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Cultural diversity and stability of a population affect the adaptiveness and survival of individuals. Besides field studies, cultural diversity and stability have been investigated with the help of different modeling approaches in relatively simple cultures. These theoretical studies helped identify mechanisms that generate cultural diversity through increasing the proportion of new elements in the population, for example by immigration or erroneous learning. Copy-the-majority learning strategies, forms of positive frequency-dependent learning, have a rather opposite effect: while they help in maintaining cultural stability by favoring the spread of common elements, they also decrease cultural diversity. We investigated whether these basic, conflicting mechanisms are sufficient together to create a complex, polymorphic cultural system and to maintain its diversity and stability. For that we developed an individual-based model simulating song learning in birds in which the extent of immigration, the frequency of learning mistakes and the strength of positive frequency-dependent learning were included as modifiable parameters. From the model, we obtained information on the composition and temporal changes in the individual and population repertoires. A comparison with long-term field data on a European passerine bird species with moderate song complexity, the collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis), was also performed. Our results confirmed that certain combinations of the three investigated mechanisms were indeed able to create patterns that showed certain aspects of polymorphic cultures. Yet, several discrepancies occurred when comparing the simulation results with the field data that emphasize the implementation of other mechanisms, especially those that have a stabilizing effect. Long-term metastable states, found in the population-level cultural diversity, raise awareness to animal cultures’ possible sensitivity to external factors.

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“…Next, we extracted the following acoustic variables: duration, mean frequency, minimum frequency, maximum frequency and the frequency bandwidth of the syllables by automatic measurement. We selected these acoustic variables because previous studies proved their importance in characterising the acoustic variety of the collared flycatcher song, significance in signalling and robust automatic measurement (Garamszegi et al., 2018; Zsebők, Blázi, et al., 2018; Zsebők et al., 2017; Zsebők, Herczeg, et al., 2018). Furthermore, these measurements can also be estimated with ease in a large number of other species offering an approach with general usefulness and with comparable results.…”

Section: Case Study On Birdsongmentioning

confidence: 99%

A practical approach to measuring the acoustic diversity by community ecology methods

et al. 2021

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The study of the diversity of animal signals on within‐ and among‐species levels is the key to uncover mechanisms that shape the evolution of communication systems. However, the methods used to quantify acoustic diversity (like repertoire size) lack to grasp several aspects of acoustic diversity. Here, we propose a new framework for the study of animal communication, in which we decompose the acoustic diversity with the methodological toolbox from community ecology. We explore how different diversity estimates reflecting different aspects of acoustic diversity can be applied to characterise the complexity of acoustic signals. We propose that this approach can be used in a wide range of animal taxa to derive further insights about the function and evolution of communication systems besides the traditional methods. To illustrate the use of our approach in a case study, we used the song of the collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis as model system. Based on three frequency and time variables, we calculated three functional diversity indices (FRic, FEve and FDiv) to characterise the distribution of song elements (syllables) in the acoustic parameter space. We aimed to uncover the interrelations of diversity indices, reveal the degree of among‐individual consistency and investigate their relationships with certain aspects of individual quality (body condition, age and arrival date). We found that the diversity indices were largely independent of each other and showed different consistency patterns that were time‐scale dependent, indicating different signalling potential of individual‐specific attributes. We also found that FEve strongly related to the age of males. Our case study showed that decomposing the diversity into different components can reveal additional biologically meaningful aspects of birdsong.

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MHC‐mediated sexual selection on birdsong: Generic polymorphism, particular alleles and acoustic signals

Cited by 12 publications

References 89 publications

MHC class I diversity predicts non-random mating in Chinese alligators (Alligator sinensis)

MHC class I diversity predicts non-random mating in Chinese alligators (Alligator sinensis)

Effects of positive frequency-dependent learning, learning mistakes, and immigration on complex cultures–Validation on the song of collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis) by individual-based modeling

A practical approach to measuring the acoustic diversity by community ecology methods

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