Diversity of Underwater Vocalizations in Chinese Soft-Shelled Turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis)

Lu, Zhengxin; Lei, Jinhong; Zhai, Xiaofei; Lu, Ningning; Shi, Haitao; Wang, Jichao

doi:10.3390/ani13050812

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…It is also worth noting that these free-moving turtles were only one-month-old suggesting that vocal complexity may increase during development and highlighting the necessity of studying the use of sounds in turtles across different life stages. Moreover, studies in freshwater turtles that were living in captivity as a group found that the use of sound types varies by sexes and ages [48–50]. These findings support our expectation that turtles have wider use of sounds in their underwater lives and suggest the potential of social communication by acoustic signals in turtles.…”

Section: Future Directions and Conclusionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Hidden social complexity behind vocal and acoustic communication in non-avian reptiles

Lin,

Godfrey

2024

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Social interactions are inevitable in the lives of most animals, since most essential behaviours require interaction with conspecifics, such as mating and competing for resources. Non-avian reptiles are typically viewed as solitary animals that predominantly use their vision and olfaction to communicate with conspecifics. Nevertheless, in recent years, evidence is mounting that some reptiles can produce sounds and have the potential for acoustic communication. Reptiles that can produce sound have an additional communicative channel (in addition to visual/olfactory channels), which could suggest they have a higher communicative complexity, the evolution of which is assumed to be driven by the need of social interactions. Thus, acoustic reptiles may provide an opportunity to unveil the true social complexity of reptiles that are usually thought of as solitary. This review aims to reveal the hidden social interactions behind the use of sounds in non-avian reptiles. Our review suggests that the potential of vocal and acoustic communication and the complexity of social interactions may be underestimated in non-avian reptiles, and that acoustic reptiles may provide a great opportunity to uncover the coevolution between sociality and communication in non-avian reptiles. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The power of sound: unravelling how acoustic communication shapes group dynamics’.

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Section: Future Directions and Conclusionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Hidden social complexity behind vocal and acoustic communication in non-avian reptiles

Lin,

Godfrey

2024

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…In aquaculture, the Chinese soft-shell turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis) is the top aquatic economic species of amphibians and reptiles in China, with an annual output exceeding 300,000 tons for ten consecutive years [1,2]. However, there is marked sexual dimorphism in body growth and calipash when comparing male and female P. sinensis, and males have higher economic and industrial value than females [3][4][5]. Therefore, there is an urgent need to breed monosexual populations of male P. sinensis to benefit the entire aquaculture industry [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of Sex-Specific Markers and Candidate Genes Using WGS Sequencing Reveals a ZW-Type Sex-Determination System in the Chinese Soft-Shell Turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis)

Zhu,

Wang,

Chen

et al. 2024

IJMS

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Male and female Chinese soft-shelled turtles (Pelodiscus sinensis) have sex-dimorphic growth patterns, and males have higher commercial value because of their larger size and thicker calipash. Thus, developing sex-specific markers is beneficial to studies on all-male breeding in P. sinensis. Here, we developed an accurate and efficient workflow for the screening of sex-specific sequences with ZW or XY sex determination systems. Based on this workflow, female and male P. sinensis reference genomes of 2.23 Gb and 2.26 Gb were obtained using de novo assembly. After aligning and filtering, 4.01 Mb female-specific sequences were finally identified. Subsequently, the seven developed sex-specific primer pairs were 100% accurate in preliminary, population, and embryonic validation. The presence and absence of bands for the primers of P44, P45, P66, P67, P68, and P69, as well as two and one bands for the PB1 primer, indicate that the embryos are genetically female and male, respectively. NR and functional annotations identified several sex-determining candidate genes and related pathways, including Ran, Eif4et, and Crkl genes, and the insulin signaling pathway and the cAMP signaling pathway, respectively. Collectively, our results reveal that a ZW-type sex-determination system is present in P. sinensis and provide novel insights for the screening of sex-specific markers, sex-control breeding, and the studies of the sex determination mechanism of P. sinensis.

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Peripheral hearing sensitivity is similar between the sexes in a benthic turtle species despite the larger body size of males

Wang,

Yang,

Lei

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Sexually dimorphic hearing sensitivity has evolved in many vertebrate species, and the sex with a larger body size typically shows more sensitive hearing. However, generalizing this association is controversial. Research on sexually dimorphic hearing sensitivity contributes to an understanding of auditory sense functions, adaptations, and evolution among species. Therefore, the hypothesized association between body size and hearing needs further validation, especially in specific animal groups. In this study, we assessed hearing sensitivity by measuring auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) in both sexes of 3‐year‐old Chinese softshell turtles (Pelodiscus sinensis). In this species, male bodies are larger than those of female, and individuals spend most of their lives in the mud at the bottom of freshwater habitats. We found that for both sexes, the hearing sensitivity bandwidth was 0.2–0.9 kHz. Although males were significantly larger than females, no significant differences in ABR thresholds or latencies were found between males and females at the same stimulus frequency. These results indicate that P. sinensis hearing is only sensitive to low‐frequency (typically <0.9 kHz) sound signals and that sexually dimorphic hearing sensitivity is not a trait that has evolved in P. sinensis. Physiological and environmental reasons may account for P. sinensis acoustic communication via low‐frequency sound signals and the lack of sexually dimorphic hearing sensitivity in these benthic turtles. The results of this study refine our understanding of the adaptation and evolution of the vertebrate auditory system.

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Diversity of Underwater Vocalizations in Chinese Soft-Shelled Turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis)

Cited by 3 publications

References 51 publications

Hidden social complexity behind vocal and acoustic communication in non-avian reptiles

Hidden social complexity behind vocal and acoustic communication in non-avian reptiles

Identification of Sex-Specific Markers and Candidate Genes Using WGS Sequencing Reveals a ZW-Type Sex-Determination System in the Chinese Soft-Shell Turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis)

Peripheral hearing sensitivity is similar between the sexes in a benthic turtle species despite the larger body size of males

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