Reproductive- and Social-State Plasticity of Multiple Sensory Systems in a Cichlid Fish

Female cichlids mate with novel androgen receptor mutant males that lack coloration

A key challenge in animal behavior is disentangling the social stimuli that drive conspecific behaviors. For some species, like teleost fish, putative sexual signaling cues are inextricably linked to others, making it difficult to parse the precise roles distinct signals play in driving conspecific behaviors. In the African cichlid Astatotilapia burtoni, males are either dominant or subordinate, wherein bright coloration, territoriality, and courtship behavior inextricably correlate positively with rank. Here, we leveraged androgen receptor (AR) mutant male A. burtoni that lack dominance-typical coloration but not behavior to isolate the role of male coloration in driving female mating behaviors in this species. We found in independent behavioral assays that females behave aggressively towards AR mutant but not WT males, yet still mated with both types of males. Females showed enhanced activation of esr2b + cells in the hypothalamus when housed with either mutant or WT males and this activation scaled with spawning activities. Therefore, there is not a simple relationship between male coloration and female mating behaviors in A. burtoni, suggesting independent sensory mechanisms converge on hypothalamic esr2b cells to coordinate behavioral output.

Sex differences in aggression and its neural substrate in a cichlid fish

Aggression is ubiquitous among social species and functions to maintains social dominance hierarchies. The African cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni is an ideal study species for studying aggression due to their unique and flexible dominance hierarchy. However, female aggression in this species and the neural mechanisms of aggression in both sexes is not well understood. To further understand the potential sex differences in aggression in this species, we characterized aggression in male and female A. burtoni in a mirror assay. We then quantified neural activation patterns in brain regions of the social behavior network (SBN) to investigate if differences in behavior are reflected in the brain with immunohistochemistry by detecting the phosphorylated ribosome marker phospho-S6 ribosomal protein (pS6), a marker for neural activation. We found that A. burtoni perform both identical and sex-specific aggressive behaviors in response to a mirror assay. We observed sex differences in pS6 immunoreactivity in the Vv, a homolog of the lateral septum in mammals. Males but not females had higher ps6 immunoreactivity in the ATn after the aggression assay. The ATn is a homolog of the ventromedial hypothalamus in mammals, which is strongly implicated in the regulation of aggression in males. Several regions also have higher pS6 immunoreactivity in negative controls than fish exposed to a mirror, implicating a role for inhibitory neurons in suppressing aggression until a relevant stimulus is present. Male and female A. burtoni display both similar and sexually dimorphic behavioral patterns in aggression in response to a mirror assay. There are also sex differences in the corresponding neural activation patterns in the SBN. In mirror males but not females, the ATn clusters with the POA, revealing a functional connectivity of these regions that is triggered in an aggressive context in males. These findings suggest that distinct neural circuitry underlie aggressive behavior in male and female A. burtoni, serving as a foundation for future work investigating the molecular and neural underpinnings of sexually dimorphic behaviors in this species to reveal fundamental insights into understanding aggression.

Sensory collectives in natural systems

Groups of animals inhabit vastly different sensory worlds, or umwelten, which shape fundamental aspects of their behaviour. Yet the sensory ecology of species is rarely incorporated into the emerging field of collective behaviour, which studies the movements, population-level behaviours, and emergent properties of animal groups. Here, we review the contributions of sensory ecology and collective behaviour to understanding how animals move and interact within the context of their social and physical environments. Our goal is to advance and bridge these two areas of inquiry and highlight the potential for their creative integration. To achieve this goal, we organise our review around the following themes: (1) identifying the promise of integrating collective behaviour and sensory ecology; (2) defining and exploring the concept of a 'sensory collective'; (3) considering the potential for sensory collectives to shape the evolution of sensory systems; (4) exploring examples from diverse taxa to illustrate neural circuits involved in sensing and collective behaviour; and (5) suggesting the need for creative conceptual and methodological advances to quantify 'sensescapes'. In the final section, (6) applications to biological conservation, we argue that these topics are timely, given the ongoing anthropogenic changes to sensory stimuli (e.g. via light, sound, and chemical pollution) which are anticipated to impact animal collectives and group-level behaviour and, in turn, ecosystem composition and function. Our synthesis seeks to provide a forward-looking perspective on how sensory ecologists and collective behaviourists can both learn from and inspire one another to advance our understanding of animal behaviour, ecology, adaptation, and evolution.

Neuroendocrine mechanisms contributing to the coevolution of sociality and communication

Communication is inherently social, so signaling systems should evolve with social systems. The 'social complexity hypothesis' posits that social complexity necessitates communicative complexity and is generally supported in vocalizing mammals. This hypothesis, however, has seldom been tested outside the acoustic modality, and comparisons across studies are confounded by varying definitions of complexity. Moreover, proximate mechanisms underlying coevolution of sociality and communication remain largely unexamined. In this review, we argue that to uncover how sociality and communication coevolve, we need to examine variation in the neuroendocrine mechanisms that coregulate social behavior and signal production and perception. Specifically, we focus on steroid hormones, monoamines, and nonapeptides, which modulate both social behavior and sensorimotor circuits and are likely targets of selection during social evolution. Lastly, we highlight weakly electric fishes as an ideal system in which to comparatively address the proximate mechanisms underlying relationships between social and signal diversity in a novel modality.

Light-induced shifts in opsin gene expression in the four-eyed fish Anableps anableps

The development of the vertebrate eye is a complex process orchestrated by several conserved transcriptional and signaling regulators. Aside from partial or complete loss, examples of exceptional modifications to this intricate organ are scarce. The unique eye of the four-eyed fish Anableps anableps is composed of duplicated corneas and pupils, as well as specialized retina regions associated with simultaneous aerial and aquatic vision. In a previous transcriptomic study of the A. anableps developing eye we identified expression of twenty non-visual and eleven visual opsin genes. Here, we surveyed the expression territories of three non-visual melanopsins genes (opn4×1, opn4×2, opn4m3), one teleost multiple tissue opsin (tmt1b) and two visual opsins (lws and rh2-1) in dorsal and ventral retinas. Our data showed that asymmetry of non-visual opsin expression is only established after birth. During embryonic development, while inside pregnant females, the expression of opn4×1, opn4×2, and tmt1b spans the whole retina. In juvenile fish (post birth), the expression of opn4×1, opn4×2, opn4m3, and tmt1b genes becomes restricted to the ventral retina, which receives aerial light. Raising juvenile fish in clear water instead of the murky waters found in its natural habitat is sufficient to change gene expression territories of opn4×1, opn4×2, opn4m3, tmt1b, and rh2-1, demonstrating that different lighting conditions can shift opsin expression and potentially contribute to changes in spectral sensitivity in the four eyed fish.

Expression and localization of neuronal nitric oxide synthase in the brain and sensory tissues of the African cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni

Nitric oxide (NO) produced by the enzyme neuronal nitric oxide synthase serves as an important neurotransmitter in the central nervous system that is involved in reproductive regulation, learning, sensory processing, and other forms of neural plasticity. Here, we map the distribution of nnos-expressing cells in the brain and retina of the cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni using in situ hybridization. In the brain, nnos-expressing cells are found from the olfactory bulbs to the hindbrain, including within specific nuclei involved in decision-making, sensory processing, neuroendocrine regulation, and the expression of social behaviors. In the retina, nnos-expressing cells are found in the inner nuclear layer, presumably in amacrine cells. We also used quantitative PCR to test for differences in nnos expression within the eye and olfactory bulbs of males and females of different reproductive states and social statuses. In the eye, males express more nnos than females, and socially dominant males express more nnos than subordinate males, but expression did not differ among female reproductive states. In the olfactory bulbs, dominant males had greater nnos expression than subordinate males. These results suggest a status-specific function for NO signaling in the visual and olfactory systems that may be important for sensory perception related to mating or territorial interactions to maintain the social hierarchy. The widespread distribution of nnos-expressing cells throughout the cichlid brain is similar to that in other teleosts, with some conserved localization patterns across vertebrates, suggesting diverse functions for this important neurotransmitter system.

Endocrine and neuroendocrine regulation of social status in cichlid fishes

Position in a dominance hierarchy profoundly impacts group members' survival, health, and reproductive success. Thus, understanding the mechanisms that regulate or are associated with an individuals' social position is important. Across taxa, various endocrine and neuroendocrine signaling systems are implicated in the control of social rank. Cichlid fishes, with their often-limited resources of food, shelter, and mates that leads to competition, have provided important insights on the proximate and ultimate mechanisms related to establishment and maintenance of dominance hierarchies. Here we review the existing information on the relationships between endocrine (e.g., circulating hormones, gonadal and other tissue measures) and neuroendocrine (e.g., central neuropeptides, biogenic amines, steroids) systems and dominant and subordinate social rank in male cichlids. Much of the current literature is focused on only a few representative cichlids, particularly the African Astatotilapia burtoni, and several other African and Neotropical species. Many hormonal regulators show distinct differences at multiple biological levels between dominant and subordinate males, but generalizations are complicated by variations in experimental paradigms, methodological approaches, and in the reproductive and parental care strategies of the study species. Future studies that capitalize on the diversity of hierarchical structures among cichlids should provide insights towards better understanding the endocrine and neuroendocrine mechanisms contributing to social rank. Further, examination of this topic in cichlids will help reveal the selective pressures driving the evolution of endocrine-related phenotypic traits that may facilitate an individual's ability to acquire and maintain a specific social rank to improve survival and reproductive success.

Endocrine Modulation of Sending and Receiving Signals in Context-Dependent Social Communication

Animal communication requires senders to transmit signals through the environment to conspecific receivers, which then leads to context-dependent behavioral decisions. Sending and receiving sensory information in social contexts, however, can be dramatically influenced by an individual’s internal state, particularly in species that cycle in and out of breeding or other physiological condition like nutritional state or social status. Modulatory substances like steroids, peptides, and biogenic amines can influence both the substrates used for sending social signals (e.g., motivation centers, sensorimotor pathways, and muscles) as well as the peripheral sensory organs and central neural circuitry involved in the reception of this information and subsequent execution of behavioral responses. This issue highlights research from neuroethologists on the topic of modulation of sending and receiving social signals and demonstrates that it can occur in both males and females, in different senses at both peripheral sensory organs and the brain, at different levels of biological organization, on different temporal scales, in various social contexts, and across many diverse vertebrate taxa. Modifying a signal produced by a sender or how that signal is perceived in a receiver provides flexibility in communication and has broad implications for influencing social decisions like mate choice, which ultimately affects reproductive fitness and species persistence. This phenomenon of modulators and internal physiological state impacting communication abilities is likely more widespread than currently realized and we hope this issue inspires others working on diverse systems to examine this topic from different perspectives. An integrative and comparative approach will advance discovery in this field and is needed to better understand how endocrine modulation contributes to sexual selection and the evolution of animal communication in general.