scholarly journals Genetic and Social Transmission of Parental Sex Roles in Zebra Finch Families

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boglárka Morvai ◽  
Emese Alexandra Fazekas ◽  
Ádám Miklósi ◽  
Ákos Pogány
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Zebra Finch ◽  
Environmental Effects ◽  
Sex Roles ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Phenotypic Variability ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Parental Behaviour ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Context Specific

Parental care plays a central, reinforcing role in the evolution of sex roles and its development is often reported to be driven by genetic, rather than environmental effects. Based on these studies, however, genetic inheritance does not account fully for the often-significant phenotypic variability observed within species, a variation that we hypothesized may be explained by social effects from parents. Following a full cross-fostering design, here we aimed at disentangling genetic and social parental effects in the ontogeny of parental behaviours. Clutches of eggs were swapped, and we monitored parental behaviours in two consecutive generations of a captive population of the socially monogamous, biparental zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). Using nest box cameras, parental behaviour was recorded for 3 h in two reproductive stages: on day 8 of incubation and day 10 post-hatching. These fostered birds, after becoming fully matured, received a pair randomly and we observed parental care of this second generation too, following the same protocol. We then compared various parental behaviours (such as time spent incubating, or number of nest attendances during offspring provisioning) in the second generation to those of their genetic and social parents. Based on the results of our experiment, both genetic and social effects can contribute to intergenerational transmission of specific parental behaviours, with various weights. However, the strongest and most consistent effect that we found is that of the current mate; a social effect that can manifest both in negative and positive directions, depending on the behavioural trait. Our study suggests context-specific and sexually different genetic, social and non-social environmental effects in the ontogeny of parental sex roles and outline the importance of parental negotiation in explaining individual variation of parental behaviour in biparental species.

scholarly journals Maternal inbreeding reduces parental care in the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata

2014 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 153-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma L. Pooley ◽  
Malcolm W. Kennedy ◽  
Ruedi G. Nager
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Zebra Finch ◽  
Taeniopygia Guttata

scholarly journals Short- and Long-Term Social Effects of Parental Sex Roles in Zebra Finches

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ákos Pogány ◽  
Boglárka Morvai ◽  
E. Tobias Krause ◽  
Eugene Kitsios ◽  
Thijs Böhm ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Roles ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Short And Long Term

scholarly journals Sex roles, parental care and offspring growth in two contrasting coucal species

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 160463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Goymann ◽  
Ignas Safari ◽  
Christina Muck ◽  
Ingrid Schwabl
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Sex Roles ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Uniparental Care ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Offspring Growth ◽  
Adult Sex Ratio

The decision to provide parental care is often associated with trade-offs, because resources allocated to parental care typically cannot be invested in self-maintenance or mating. In most animals, females provide more parental care than males, but the reason for this pattern is still debated in evolutionary ecology. To better understand sex differences in parental care and its consequences, we need to study closely related species where the sexes differ in offspring care. We investigated parental care in relation to offspring growth in two closely related coucal species that fundamentally differ in sex roles and parental care, but live in the same food-rich habitat with a benign climate and have a similar breeding phenology. Incubation patterns differed and uniparental male black coucals fed their offspring two times more often than female and male white-browed coucals combined. Also, white-browed coucals had more ‘off-times’ than male black coucals, during which they perched and preened. However, these differences in parental care were not reflected in offspring growth, probably because white-browed coucals fed their nestlings a larger proportion of frogs than insects. A food-rich habitat with a benign climate may be a necessary, but—perhaps unsurprisingly—is not a sufficient factor for the evolution of uniparental care. In combination with previous results (Goymann et al . 2015 J. Evol. Biol . 28 , 1335–1353 ( doi:10.1111/jeb.12657 )), these data suggest that white-browed coucals may cooperate in parental care, because they lack opportunities to become polygamous rather than because both parents were needed to successfully raise all offspring. Our case study supports recent theory suggesting that permissive environmental conditions in combination with a particular life history may induce sexual selection in females. A positive feedback loop among sexual selection, body size and adult sex-ratio may then stabilize reversed sex roles in competition and parental care.

scholarly journals The evolution of parental cooperation in birds

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (44) ◽  
pp. 13603-13608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimír Remeš ◽  
Robert P. Freckleton ◽  
Jácint Tökölyi ◽  
András Liker ◽  
Tamás Székely
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Model System ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Species Ranges ◽  
Parental Strategies ◽  
Life History Variables

Parental care is one of the most variable social behaviors and it is an excellent model system to understand cooperation between unrelated individuals. Three major hypotheses have been proposed to explain the extent of parental cooperation: sexual selection, social environment, and environmental harshness. Using the most comprehensive dataset on parental care that includes 659 bird species from 113 families covering both uniparental and biparental taxa, we show that the degree of parental cooperation is associated with both sexual selection and social environment. Consistent with recent theoretical models parental cooperation decreases with the intensity of sexual selection and with skewed adult sex ratios. These effects are additive and robust to the influence of life-history variables. However, parental cooperation is unrelated to environmental factors (measured at the scale of whole species ranges) as indicated by a lack of consistent relationship with ambient temperature, rainfall or their fluctuations within and between years. These results highlight the significance of social effects for parental cooperation and suggest that several parental strategies may coexist in a given set of ambient environment.

Loss of parent in childhood and adult psychiatric disorder: the role of lack of adequate parental care

1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 641-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tirril Harris ◽  
George W. Brown ◽  
Antonia Bifulco
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorder ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Sampling Location ◽  
Confounding Factors ◽  
Parental Behaviour ◽  
One Year ◽  
Loss Of Parent ◽  
Loss Of Mother

SynopsisThe inconclusiveness of the literature on the role of loss of parent in influencing psychiatric disorder in adulthood is well known. A number of reasons involving sampling, location and other methodological features, are given to account for these contradictory findings. A study specially designed to cope with these features is then described and basic results are reported. These indicate that, in a sample of women aged 18–65, loss of mother before the age of 17, either by death or by separation of one year or more, was associated with clinical depression in the year of interview. Loss of father by death was in no way associated with current depression, but separation from father showed a trend which, however, did not reach statistical significance. Control for other possible confounding factors did not change this patterning of results; these were further supported when psychiatric episodes earlier in adulthood were examined. Examination of the caregiving arrangements in childhood suggests that it is ‘lack of care’, defined in terms of neglect rather than simply hostile parental behaviour, which accounts for the raised rate of depression. Such ‘lack of care’ is more frequent after loss of mother than after loss of father.

Fecundity and reproductive habits in Patagonotothen tessellata (Richardson, 1845) from the Beagle Channel, Argentina

1995 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.A. Rae ◽  
J. Calvo
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Life History Strategy ◽  
Reproductive Period ◽  
Total Weight ◽  
Fish Length ◽  
Parental Behaviour ◽  
Beagle Channel ◽  
Spawning Periods

Population fecundity and reproductive habits in Patagonotothen tessellata were established for each reproductive period during 1988 and 1989. Fecundity/total length and fecundity/total weight relationships were analysed through regression models. Fecundity was positively correlated with fish length and weight. Mean fecundity was 25932 eggs (range 7634–62033). The regressions for each reproductive period are similar, suggesting that the amount of energy allocated to reproduction does not vary between spawning periods. Parental behaviour is described from both field and laboratory observations. Nesting and parental care were carried out by P. tessellata males. The life history strategy of this species is discussed in relation to that of other nototheniid species.

scholarly journals The neural basis of tadpole transport in poison frogs

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1907) ◽  
pp. 20191084 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva K. Fischer ◽  
Alexandre B. Roland ◽  
Nora A. Moskowitz ◽  
Elicio E. Tapia ◽  
Kyle Summers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Neural Induction ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Evolutionary Significance ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Parental Behaviour ◽  
Poison Frogs ◽  
Care Patterns ◽  
Species Specific

Parental care has evolved repeatedly and independently across animals. While the ecological and evolutionary significance of parental behaviour is well recognized, underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. We took advantage of behavioural diversity across closely related species of South American poison frogs (Family Dendrobatidae) to identify neural correlates of parental behaviour shared across sexes and species. We characterized differences in neural induction, gene expression in active neurons and activity of specific neuronal types in three species with distinct care patterns: male uniparental, female uniparental and biparental. We identified the medial pallium and preoptic area as core brain regions associated with parental care, independent of sex and species. The identification of neurons active during parental care confirms a role for neuropeptides associated with care in other vertebrates as well as identifying novel candidates. Our work is the first to explore neural and molecular mechanisms of parental care in amphibians and highlights the potential for mechanistic studies in closely related but behaviourally variable species to help build a more complete understanding of how shared principles and species-specific diversity govern parental care and other social behaviour.

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