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Bebbington K, Parenteau C, Chastel O, Groothuis TGG. Prolactin is associated with proximity to incubating partner rather than parental care in black-headed gulls. Horm Behav 2024; 163:105549. [PMID: 38663281 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105549] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2023] [Revised: 04/03/2024] [Accepted: 04/12/2024] [Indexed: 06/17/2024]
Abstract
The peptide hormone prolactin plays an important role in the expression of parental care behaviours across bird and mammal taxa. While a great deal is known about how plasma prolactin concentrations vary across the reproductive cycle, the few studies that investigate how prolactin relates to individual-level variation in parental care have reported mixed results. We argue that, since parental care is also affected by social interactions and environmental constraints, prolactin may better reflect behaviours that are indirectly related to parenting than the absolute level of care that is eventually expressed. In this study, we tested for associations between plasma prolactin and the expression of both parental care and proximity to the partner in incubating black-headed gulls, Chroicocephalus ridibundus. Baseline prolactin levels increased with calendar date but were unrelated to incubation behaviours. However, parents who showed a weaker decrease in prolactin to an acute stressor spent more time in close proximity to their incubating partner while not on the nest themselves, suggesting that individual variation in stress-induced prolactin changes reflect differences in parents' tendency to be closely associated with their partner and the joint nesting attempt. Baseline and stress-induced levels of the stress hormone corticosterone were unrelated to both prolactin levels and parental behaviours, suggesting that this hormone is not a strong moderator of parental care in black-headed gulls. One potential explanation for the link between prolactin dynamics and partner proximity is that prolactin reflects parental motivation to provide parental care or retain contact with the breeding partner, but further work is needed to directly test this hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kat Bebbington
- Behavioural Biology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, 6747AG Groningen, the Netherlands; Department of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University and Research, 6708WD Wageningen, the Netherlands.
| | - Charline Parenteau
- Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), UMR 7372, CNRS-La Rochelle Université, 79360 Villiers-en-Bois, France
| | - Olivier Chastel
- Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), UMR 7372, CNRS-La Rochelle Université, 79360 Villiers-en-Bois, France
| | - Ton G G Groothuis
- Behavioural Biology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, 6747AG Groningen, the Netherlands
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Gormally BMG, Lopes PC. The effect of infection risk on female blood transcriptomics. Gen Comp Endocrinol 2023; 330:114139. [PMID: 36209834 DOI: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2022.114139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2022] [Revised: 09/30/2022] [Accepted: 10/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Defenses against pathogens can take on many forms. For instance, behavioral avoidance of diseased conspecifics is widely documented. Interactions with these infectious conspecifics can also, however, lead to physiological changes in uninfected animals, an effect that is much less well understood. These changes in behavior and physiology are particularly important to study in a reproductive context, where they can impact reproductive decisions and offspring quality. Here, we studied how an acute (3 h) exposure to an immune-challenged male affected female blood transcriptomics and behavior. We predicted that females paired with immune-challenged males would reduce eating and drinking behaviors (as avoidance behaviors) and that their blood would show activation of immune and stress responses. We used female Japanese quail as a study system because they have been shown to respond to male traits, in terms of their own physiology and egg investment. Only two genes showed significant differential expression due to treatment, including an increase in the threonine dehydrogenase (TDH) transcript, an enzyme important for threonine breakdown. However, hundreds of genes in pathways related to activation of immune responses showed coordinated up-regulation in females exposed to immune-challenged males. Suppressed pathways revealed potential changes to metabolism and reduced responsiveness to glucocorticoids. Contrary to our prediction, we found that females paired with immune-challenged males increased food consumption. Water consumption was not changed by treatment. These findings suggest that even short exposure to diseased conspecifics can trigger both behavioral and physiological responses in healthy animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brenna M G Gormally
- Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA
| | - Patricia C Lopes
- Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA.
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Westrick SE, Moss JB, Fischer EK. Who cares? An integrative approach to understanding the evolution of behavioural plasticity in parental care. Anim Behav 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.10.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Batool F, Bilal RM, Hassan FU, Nasir TA, Rafeeque M, Elnesr SS, Farag MR, Mahgoub HAM, Naiel MAE, Alagawany M. An updated review on behavior of domestic quail with reference to the negative effect of heat stress. Anim Biotechnol 2021; 34:424-437. [PMID: 34355648 DOI: 10.1080/10495398.2021.1951281] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Japanese quail originated from the wildlife environment and was first domesticated in Japan in 1595. Japanese quail has widely distributed in various parts of the world. This bird is characterized by its rapid growth rate, high rate of egg production, much lower space requirements, small size, good reproductive potential, short life cycle, resistance to diseases, early sexual maturity (from 39 to 50 days), better laying ability and shorter time of hatching compared with the different species of poultry. All these characteristics rendered it an excellent laboratory animal and a good economical animal protein source (for both egg and meat). Thermal stress was found to be the major limiting variable in poultry production, directly influencing bird welfare conditions. Previous research showed that heat stress in the production environment, induced by high ambient temperatures, may have a direct detrimental effect on welfare, meat quality, carcass characteristics, productivity, egg mass and egg quality. Furthermore, heat stress directly decreases quails' reproductive performance. As tiny, ground-dwelling birds, quail may appear unable to handle extreme temperatures, yet they have methods of fighting the heat. This review will help in developing and strengthening the core of the quail-based poultry sector. In addition, it provides aggregate information on the characteristics of the quail bird as a production unit in poultry farms as well as being an animal model for laboratory experiments. Also, this review provided deep insight into the domestication process and the impact of heat stress on production characteristics, which altered the domestic or Japanese quail substantially.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fiza Batool
- Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Forestry, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
| | - Rana M Bilal
- Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Department of Animal Nutrition, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
| | - Faiz Ul Hassan
- Faculty of Animal Husbandry, Institute of Animal & Dairy Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan
| | - Taquir A Nasir
- Department of Animal Science, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan
| | - Majid Rafeeque
- Department of Animal Science, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan
| | - Shaaban S Elnesr
- Faculty of Agriculture, Poultry Production Department, Fayoum University, Fayoum, Egypt
| | - Mayada R Farag
- Veterinary Medicine Faculty, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Department, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt
| | - Hany A M Mahgoub
- Faculty of Science, Department of Botany and Microbiology, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Egypt
| | - Mohammed A E Naiel
- Faculty of Agriculture, Animal Production Department, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt
| | - Mahmoud Alagawany
- Faculty of Agriculture, Poultry Department, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt
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Lopes PC, de Bruijn R. Neurotranscriptomic changes associated with chick-directed parental care in adult non-reproductive Japanese quail. Sci Rep 2021; 11:15481. [PMID: 34326416 PMCID: PMC8322411 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-94927-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
For many species, parental care critically affects offspring survival. But what drives animals to display parental behaviours towards young? In mammals, pregnancy-induced physiological transformations seem key in preparing the neural circuits that lead towards attraction (and reduced-aggression) to young. Beyond mammalian maternal behaviour, knowledge of the neural mechanisms that underlie young-directed parental care is severely lacking. We took advantage of a domesticated bird species, the Japanese quail, for which parental behaviour towards chicks can be induced in virgin non-reproductive adults through a sensitization procedure, a process that is not effective in all animals. We used the variation in parental responses to study neural transcriptomic changes associated with the sensitization procedure itself and with the outcome of the procedure (i.e., presence of parental behaviours). We found differences in gene expression in the hypothalamus and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, but not the nucleus taeniae. Two genes identified are of particular interest. One is neurotensin, previously only demonstrated to be causally associated with maternal care in mammals. The other one is urocortin 3, causally demonstrated to affect young-directed neglect and aggression in mammals. Because our studies were conducted in animals that were reproductively quiescent, our results reflect core neural changes that may be associated with avian young-directed care independently of extensive hormonal stimulation. Our work opens new avenues of research into understanding the neural basis of parental care in non-placental species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia C Lopes
- Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA.
| | - Robert de Bruijn
- Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA
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