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Delmé C, Jackson N, Class B, Strickland K, Potvin DA, Frère CH. Adaptive significance of affiliative behaviour differs between sexes in a wild reptile population. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20230805. [PMID: 37339740 PMCID: PMC10281801 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.0805] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/22/2023] [Indexed: 06/22/2023] Open
Abstract
In recent years, we have begun to appreciate that social behaviours might exhibit repeatable among-individual variation. Such behavioural traits may even covary and have critical evolutionary implications. Importantly, some social behaviours such as aggressiveness have been shown to provide fitness benefits, including higher reproductive success and survival. However, fitness consequences of affiliative behaviours, especially between or among sexes, can be more challenging to establish. Using a longitudinal behavioural dataset (2014-2021) collected on eastern water dragons (Intellagama lesueurii), we investigated whether various aspects of affiliative behaviour (i) were repeatable across years, (ii) covaried with each other at the among-individual level, and (iii) influenced individuals' fitness. In particular, we considered affiliative behaviours towards opposite-sex and same-sex conspecifics separately. We found that social traits were repeatable and covaried with each other similarly for both sexes. More notably, we found that male reproductive success was positively correlated with the number of female associates and the proportion of time spent with females, while females' reproductive success was not correlated with any of the measured social behaviour metrics. Overall, these findings suggest that selection may be acting differently on social behaviour of male and female eastern water dragons.
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Affiliation(s)
- C. Delmé
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
| | - N. Jackson
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - B. Class
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - K. Strickland
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - D. A. Potvin
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
| | - C. H. Frère
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
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Strickland K, Mitchell DJ, Delmé C, Frère CH. Repeatability and heritability of social reaction norms in a wild agamid lizard. Evolution 2021; 75:1953-1965. [PMID: 34184766 DOI: 10.1111/evo.14298] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2019] [Revised: 06/01/2021] [Accepted: 06/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
In the evolutionary transition from solitary to group living, it should be adaptive for animals to respond to the environment and choose when to socialize to reduce conflict and maximize access to resources. Due to the associated proximate mechanisms (e.g. neural network, endocrine system), it is likely that this behavior varies between individuals according to genetic and non-genetic factors. We used long-term behavioral and genetic data from a population of eastern water dragons (Intellagama lesueurii) to explore variation in plasticity of social behavior, in response to sex ratio and density. To do so, we modeled individual variation in social reaction norms, which describe individuals' mean behavior and behavioral responses to changes in their environment, and partitioned variance into genetic and non-genetic components. We found that reaction norms were repeatable over multiple years, suggesting that individuals consistently differed in their behavioral responses to changes in the social environment. Despite high repeatability of reaction norm components, trait heritability was below our limit of detection based on power analyses (h2 < 0.12), leading to very little power to detect heritability of plasticity. This was in contrast to a relatively greater amount of variance associated with environmental effects. This could suggest that mechanisms such as social learning and frequency-dependence may shape variance in reaction norms, which will be testable as the dataset grows.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kasha Strickland
- Global Ecology Change Research Group, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Maroochydore, Australia.,Department of Aquaculture and Fish Biology, Hólar University, Hólar, Iceland
| | - David J Mitchell
- Department of Ethology/Zoology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Coralie Delmé
- Global Ecology Change Research Group, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Maroochydore, Australia
| | - Céline H Frère
- Global Ecology Change Research Group, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Maroochydore, Australia
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Littleford-Colquhoun BL, Weyrich LS, Kent N, Frere CH. City life alters the gut microbiome and stable isotope profiling of the eastern water dragon (Intellagama lesueurii). Mol Ecol 2019; 28:4592-4607. [PMID: 31495003 DOI: 10.1111/mec.15240] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2019] [Revised: 08/09/2019] [Accepted: 08/09/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Urbanisation is one of the most significant threats to biodiversity, due to the rapid and large-scale environmental alterations it imposes on the natural landscape. It is, therefore, imperative that we understand the consequences of and mechanisms by which, species can respond to it. In recent years, research has shown that plasticity of the gut microbiome may be an important mechanism by which animals can adapt to environmental change, yet empirical evidence of this in wild non-model species remains sparse. Using an empirical replicated study system, we show that city life alters the gut microbiome and stable isotope profiling of a wild native non-model species - the eastern water dragon (Intellagama lesueurii) in Queensland, Australia. City dragons exhibit a more diverse gut microbiome than their native habitat counterparts and show gut microbial signatures of a high fat and plant rich diet. Additionally, we also show that city dragons have elevated levels of the Nitrogen-15 isotope in their blood suggesting that a city diet, which incorporates novel anthropogenic food sources, may also be richer in protein. These results highlight the role that gut microbial plasticity plays in an animals' response to human-altered landscapes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bethan L Littleford-Colquhoun
- Global Change Ecology Research Group, School of Science and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Qld, Australia
| | - Laura S Weyrich
- Department of Genetics and Evolution, Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.,Centre for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
| | - Nicola Kent
- Global Change Ecology Research Group, School of Science and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Qld, Australia
| | - Celine H Frere
- Global Change Ecology Research Group, School of Science and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Qld, Australia
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Maclaine A, Forzán MJ, Mashkour N, Scott J, Ariel E. Pathogenesis of Bohle Iridovirus (Genus Ranavirus) in Experimentally Infected Juvenile Eastern Water Dragons ( Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii). Vet Pathol 2019; 56:465-475. [PMID: 30686212 DOI: 10.1177/0300985818823666] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Juvenile eastern water dragons ( Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii) are highly susceptible to infection with Bohle iridovirus (BIV), a species of ranavirus first isolated from ornate burrowing frogs in Townsville, Australia. To investigate the progression of BIV infection in eastern water dragons, 11 captive-bred juveniles were orally inoculated with a dose of 104.33 TCID50 and euthanized at 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 days postinfection (dpi). Viral DNA was detected via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the liver, kidney, and cloacal swabs at 3 dpi. Mild lymphocytic infiltration was observed in the submucosa and mucosa of the tongue and liver at 3 dpi. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) first identified viral antigen in foci of splenic necrosis and in hepatocytes with intracytoplasmic inclusion or rare single-cell necrosis at 6 dpi. By 14 dpi, positive IHC labeling was found in association with lesions in multiple tissues. Selected tissues from an individual euthanized at 14 dpi were probed using in situ hybridization (ISH). The ISH labeling matched the location and pattern detected by IHC. The progression of BIV infection in eastern water dragons, based on lesion severity and virus detection, appears to start in the spleen, followed by the liver, then other organs such as the kidney, pancreas, oral mucosa, and skin. The early detection of ranaviral DNA in cloacal swabs and liver and kidney tissue samples suggests these to be a reliable source of diagnostic samples in the early stage of disease before the appearance of clinical signs, as well as throughout the infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alicia Maclaine
- 1 College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia
| | - María J Forzán
- 2 Cornell Wildlife Health Lab, Department of Population Medicine, Animal Health Diagnostic Center, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, Ithaca, NY, USA
| | - Narges Mashkour
- 1 College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia
| | - Jennifer Scott
- 1 College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia
| | - Ellen Ariel
- 1 College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia
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Johnson R, Harlow PS, Phillips CA, Hall E. Baseline morphometric, haematological and plasma biochemical parameters in free-ranging eastern water dragons (Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii). Aust Vet J 2018; 96:450-457. [PMID: 30370595 DOI: 10.1111/avj.12755] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2017] [Revised: 04/04/2018] [Accepted: 04/30/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine baseline reference data for morphometric measurements and haematological and plasma biochemical parameters in clinically healthy eastern water dragons (Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii), accounting for the variables of season and sex. The clinical objective was to provide clinicians and researchers with baseline reference intervals (RIs) in order to assess accurately the health of a population or individual animals. METHODS The study group comprised 39 free-ranging eastern water dragons. To monitor seasonal changes in data two study periods were assigned: September-October 2009 (spring) and January-March 2010 (summer). The 18 males and 21 females were captured in the grounds of Taronga Zoo, Mosman (33°50'45'' S, 151°15'20'' E) in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Basic morphometric, haematological and plasma biochemical parameters were measured. RIs were generated in accordance with the American Society of Veterinary Clinical Pathology guidelines. Data were analysed for the effects of sex, season and sex-season interactions using restricted maximal likelihood modelling. RESULTS Reference values were established in eastern water dragons for morphometric data and RIs were generated for haematological and plasma biochemical levels. The study showed seasonal variation in uric acid. Weight, total length, snout-vent length and basophil % showed significant differences according to sex. Sex-season interactions were detected for calcium, monocyte % and total protein (refractometry). CONCLUSION Multiple parameters exhibited normal physiological variation between season and sex and an interaction between the two factors. These variables need to be considered in the clinical context when interpreting results of haematological and biochemical analyses in eastern water dragons. The RIs established from this population will provide a basis for further studies in both free-living and captive eastern water dragons, and for comparison in clinical cases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rsp Johnson
- Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Mosman, New South Wales, 2088, Australia.,South Penrith Veterinary Clinic, Penrith, NSW, Australia
| | - P S Harlow
- Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Mosman, New South Wales, 2088, Australia
| | - C A Phillips
- South Penrith Veterinary Clinic, Penrith, NSW, Australia
| | - Ejs Hall
- The University of Sydney, Camden, NSW, Australia
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