Baseline hormone levels are linked to reproductive success but not parental care behaviors

Burtka, Jennifer L.; Lovern, Matthew B.; Grindstaff, Jennifer L.

doi:10.1016/j.ygcen.2016.03.010

Cited by 19 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…However, results of testosterone manipulations are in contrast to published studies relating the naturally occurring variance in testosterone levels with paternal care: post-capture testosterone concentrations (termed 'baseline testosterone' for the remainder of this article) were not related to paternal care in barn swallows [36], black redstarts (Phoenicurus ochruros; [37]), dark-eyed juncos [38], eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialia [39]), European starlings [40], and northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis; [41]; note, however, that in dark-eyed juncos maximum testosterone was related to pre-capture levels of paternal care [38]). Male tawny owls (Strix aluco) with higher testosterone levels showed even higher provisioning rates than males with lower circulating levels of the hormone [42].…”

Section: Introductioncontrasting

confidence: 65%

Acute peaks of testosterone suppress paternal care: evidence from individual hormonal reaction norms

Goymann¹,

Dávila²

2017

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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A long-standing tenet of evolutionary endocrinology states that testosterone mediates the life-history trade-off between mating and paternal care. However, the support for a role of testosterone in suppressing paternal care is mixed: implantation studies in birds suggest that high-level testosterone implants suppress paternal care, but circulating levels of testosterone and paternal care are typically not correlated. Because any trade-off in real life must be realized with hormone levels that are within an individual's reaction norm, it is crucial to show that natural changes in the hormone can modulate behaviour. Here, we used GnRH-injections to alter testosterone levels of free-living male black redstarts within each individual's hormonal reaction norm: individuals experiencing a short-term peak in testosterone resumed feeding their offspring later and showed a stronger suppression of offspring-feeding behaviour than control males. For the first time, this study demonstrated that short-term peaks in testosterone within the hormonal reaction norm of individuals can suppress paternal behaviour. Our findings reconcile previous seemingly contradictive effects that testosterone implants had on paternal care and the absence of correlations between circulating testosterone levels and paternal care, and demonstrate that the differential production of testosterone within the hormonal reaction norm of single individuals can indeed function as a mechanism to mediate a potential trade-off between mating and parenting. On a broader note, our results suggest that natural and short peaks in testosterone can elicit adaptive behavioural changes.

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Section: Introductioncontrasting

confidence: 65%

Acute peaks of testosterone suppress paternal care: evidence from individual hormonal reaction norms

Goymann¹,

Dávila²

2017

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…However, circulating androgens may have indirect positive effects on female reproductive success, for example by affecting competition, mate and nest acquisition and parental behaviour [16, 22, 42–44]. Circulating female CORT levels have been found to both negatively [45–50] and positively correlate with reproduction [48–51]. In Japanese quail, selection lines bred for an exaggerated stress response showed a decrease in reproductive success, with an additional negative effect of artificially increasing CORT levels in these females [52].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social environment during egg laying: Changes in plasma hormones with no consequences for yolk hormones or fecundity in female Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica

2017

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The social environment can have profound effects on an individual’s physiology and behaviour and on the transfer of resources to the next generation, with potential consequences for fecundity and reproduction. However, few studies investigate all of these aspects at once. The present study housed female Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) in pairs or groups to examine the effects on hormone concentrations in plasma and yolk and on reproductive performance. Circulating levels of androgens (testosterone and 5-α-dihydrotestosterone) and corticosterone were measured in baseline samples and after standardised challenges to assess the responsiveness of the females’ endocrine axes. Effects of the social environment on female fecundity were analysed by measuring egg production, egg mass, fertilization rates, and number of hatched offspring. Counter to expectation, females housed in pairs had higher plasma androgen concentrations and slightly higher corticosterone concentrations than females housed in groups, although the latter was not statistically significant. Pair vs. group housing did not affect the females’ hormonal response to standardised challenges or yolk testosterone levels. In contrast to previous studies, the females’ androgen response to a gonadotropin-releasing hormone challenge was not related to yolk testosterone levels. Non-significant trends emerged for pair-housed females to have higher egg-laying rates and higher fertility, but no differences arose in egg weight or in the number, weight or size of hatchlings. We propose that our unexpected findings are due to differences in the adult sex ratio in our social treatments. In pairs, the male may stimulate female circulating hormone levels more strongly than in groups where effects are diluted due to the presence of several females. Future studies should vary both group size and sex composition to disentangle the significance of sexual, competitive and affiliative social interactions for circulating and yolk hormone levels, and their consequences for subsequent generations.

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“…Glucocorticoid hormones (GCs) are particularly appropriate indicators of short-term physiological responses to variable environmental conditions due to their critical role in allostasis (Sapolsky et al 2000, Wikelski and Cooke 2006, Busch and Hayward 2009. Chronically elevated GCs are usually considered maladaptive (Bonier et al 2009), although support for this hypothesis is mixed (e.g., Thierry et al 2013, Burtka et al 2016, Hansen et al 2016, Madliger and Love 2016. In general, baseline GCs are thought to reflect the social, environmental, and energetic challenges to homeostasis faced by individuals (Sapolsky et al 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glucocorticoid–environment relationships align with responses to environmental change in two co‐occurring congeners

Hammond

Palme

Lacey

2018

Ecological Applications

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As more species undergo range shifts in response to climate change, it is increasingly important to understand the factors that determine an organism's realized niche. Physiological limits imposed by abiotic factors constrain the distributions of many species. Because glucocorticoids are essential to the maintenance of physiological homeostasis, identifying glucocorticoid-environment relationships may generate critical insights into both limits on species distributions and potential responses to environmental change. We explored relationships between variability in baseline glucocorticoids and sensitivity to environmental conditions in two chipmunk species characterized by divergent patterns of spatial, genetic, and morphological change over the past century. Specifically, we investigated whether the alpine chipmunk (Tamias alpinus), which has undergone pronounced changes, displays greater glucocorticoid sensitivity to environmental parameters than the lodgepole chipmunk (T. speciosus), which has exhibited little change over the same interval. From 2013 to 2015, we collected environmental data and fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) samples from these species. Using generalized linear mixed models and a model averaging approach, we examined the impacts of environmental and individual phenotypic parameters on FGMs. We found pronounced interspecific differences, with environmental parameters being better predictors of FGMs in T. alpinus. FGMs in this species were particularly elevated in less climatically suitable habitats and in areas with higher maximum daily temperatures. Individual phenotypic traits were not predictive of FGMs in T. alpinus, although they were highly predictive for T. speciosus. Collectively, these findings support the hypothesis that T. alpinus is more sensitive to environmental change. More generally, our results suggest that both phenotypic attributes and environmental conditions contribute to FGM responses but that the relative contributions of these factors differ among taxa, including among closely related species. Finally, our analyses underscore the value of glucocorticoids as bioindicators of sensitivity to environmental change in species for which the factors affecting stress physiology have been assessed.

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Baseline hormone levels are linked to reproductive success but not parental care behaviors

Cited by 19 publications

References 53 publications

Acute peaks of testosterone suppress paternal care: evidence from individual hormonal reaction norms

Acute peaks of testosterone suppress paternal care: evidence from individual hormonal reaction norms

Social environment during egg laying: Changes in plasma hormones with no consequences for yolk hormones or fecundity in female Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica

Glucocorticoid–environment relationships align with responses to environmental change in two co‐occurring congeners

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