Sexual differences in exploration behavior inXenopus tropicalis?

Abstract

The two sexes of a species often differ in many ways. How sexes differ depends on the selective context, with females often investing more in reproductive output and males in territory defense and resource acquisition. This also implies that behavioral strategies may differ between the two sexes, allowing them to optimize their fitness in a given ecological context. Here, we investigated whether males and females differ in their exploration behavior in an aquatic frog (Xenopus tropicalis). Moreover, we explored whether females show different behavioral strategies in the exploration of a novel environment as has been demonstrated previously for males of the same species. Our results show significant sex differences, with males exploring their environment more than females. Yet, similar to males, female exploratory behavior varied significantly among individuals and broadly fell into three categories: shy, intermediate and bold. Moreover, like in males, behavioral strategies are decoupled from morphology and performance. Our results suggest that females are more sedentary than males, with males engaging in greater risk taking by exploring novel environments more. Male and female behaviors could, however, be classified into similar groups, with some individuals being bolder than others and displaying more exploration behavior. The decoupling of morphology and performance from behavior appears to be a general feature in the species and may allow selection to act on both types of traits independently.

Dysregulation of Specialized Delay/Interference-Dependent Working Memory Following Loss of Dysbindin-1A in Schizophrenia-Related Phenotypes

“…The hyper-exploratory response to novelty, a predictive model of positive psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia (van den Buuse, 2010), appears to involve transient enhancement of perception and arousal, with early triggering of the mesocorticolimbic system to promote release of dopamine in the HF (Schomaker and Meeter, 2015). That the present findings were evident primarily in males would be consistent with evidence, from lower organisms through rodents to humans, that exploratory drive is stronger in males, in a manner that involves hippocampal more than accumbal processes (Clinton et al, 2011;Cross et al, 2013;Videlier et al, 2015). Recent studies in patients with schizophrenia, the majority of whom were male, have likewise reported over-activity in a novel, human open-field paradigm, with disruption to habituation of initial exploratory activity (Perry et al, 2009(Perry et al, , 2010.…”

Contrasting parental roles shape sex differences in poison frog space use but not navigational performance

“…Even in O. sylvatica , a species where females perform parental care and have wider space use, males tended to be more explorative after translocations. Male-biased dispersal and higher male exploration rates have also been observed in some frogs without parental care ( Engystomops pustulosus : Lampert et al, 2003; Bufo bufo : Ogurtsov et al, 2018; Xenopus tropicalis : Videlier et al, 2015). Thus, regardless of parental care strategies, different life histories, and sex differences in home range size, male amphibians tend to be more exploratory, suggesting that other factors, such as male-biased dispersal and high intra-sexual male competition may be associated with the sex difference in exploration.…”

Identification and functional evaluation of GRIA1 missense and truncation variants in individuals with ID: An emerging neurodevelopmental syndrome

“…Xenopus have an extensive track record for cost-effective, high-throughput gene function analysis 116 , 117 , 118 , 119 , 120 and high evolutionary similarity to mammals but broadly lack robust assays to measure higher executive functions. To date, most behavioral studies in Xenopus have focused on understanding behavior in the wild, with some reports detailing laboratory schooling, 121 , 122 swim and search patterns, 123 , 124 , 125 , 126 color differentiation, 127 , 128 , 129 seizure induction, 50 , 130 and learned behaviours. 129 , 131 In contrast, sophisticated quantitative behavioral analysis has so far been limited in tadpoles.…”