Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) Skin Contains Eumelanin and Pheomelanin

Morales-Guerrero, Blanca; Gendron, Diane; Martinez-Levasseur, Laura M.; Acevedo‐Whitehouse, Karina

doi:10.1578/am.45.1.2019.88

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“…Whatever the physiological mechanisms linking pheomelanin expression to individual quality, the negative association between these two traits suggests that, in blue petrels, pheomelanin-based coloration may not have evolved as a social or sexual signal of individual quality in females. In several species, melanin-based coloration is determined not only by the total amount of pigments, but also by the eumelanin-to-pheomelanin ratio (Ito and Wakamatsu 2003;Singaravelan et al 2010;Morales-Guerrero et al 2019). Several molecules such as agouti and glutathione that trigger the production of pheomelanin have an inhibitory effect on eumelanin production, whereas other hormones, such as melanocortins, have the opposite effect (Benedetto et al 1982;Lu et al 1994;Furumura et al 1996;Le Pape et al 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pheomelanin-based coloration is related to individual quality and oxidative stress in blue petrels

et al. 2019

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In several species, the rusty color of hair or feathers is due to pheomelanin pigments, whose adaptive function is unknown. Pheomelanin may be costly because it is phototoxic and its production consumes a key intracellular antioxidant. Pheomelanin-based traits are, however, positively associated with individual quality in several bird species, where they have thus been suggested to have evolved through sexual selection. Here we investigated the signaling potential of the pheomelanin-based coloration of the crown feathers in the blue petrel. Although this pelagic seabird is nocturnal at the breeding colony and breeds within deep burrows, it might use visual communication when settled on the water during daytime. We tested the correlation between crown color and several fitness-related traits, and we found that higher-quality females displayed less-orange crown than poorer-quality females. This result is inconsistent with an adaptive function of pheomelanin-based coloration in inter-, or intra-, sexual selection in females. We suggest that it might, however, be in line with a signaling function of eumelanin-based coloration, if inter-individual variations in orange coloration are mainly due to eumelanin-to-pheomelanin ratio, rather than to pheomelanin quantity. In contrast to females, we did not find strong evidence for associations between melanin-based coloration and individual quality in males, suggesting sex-specific selective pressures on melanin-based traits in this species.

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