Neural correlates of winning and losing fights in poison frog tadpoles

10.1101/2020.01.27.922286 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Eva K Fischer ◽

Harmony Alvarez ◽

Katherine M Lagerstrom ◽

Jordan E McKinney ◽

Randi Petrillo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Neural Activity ◽

Preoptic Area ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Arginine Vasotocin ◽

Water Volume ◽

Neural Activation ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Poison Frog ◽

Frog Tadpoles

ABSTRACTAggressive competition for resources among juveniles is documented in many species, but the neural mechanisms regulating this behavior in young animals are poorly understood. In poison frogs, increased parental care is associated with decreased water volume of tadpole pools, resource limitation, and aggression. Indeed, the tadpoles of many poison frog species will attack, kill, and cannibalize other tadpoles. We examined the neural basis of conspecific aggression in Dyeing poison frog (Dendrobates tinctorius) tadpoles by comparing individuals that won aggressive encounters, lost aggressive encounters, or did not engage in a fight. We first compared patterns of generalized neural activity using immunohistochemical detection of phosphorylated ribosomes (pS6) as a proxy for neural activation associated with behavior. We found increased neural activity in the medial pallium and preoptic area of loser tadpoles, suggesting the amphibian homologs of the mammalian hippocampus and preoptic area may facilitate loser-associated behaviors. Nonapeptides (arginine vasotocin and mesotocin) and dopamine have been linked to aggression in other vertebrates and are located in the preoptic area. We next examined neural activity specifically in nonapeptide- and tyrosine-hydroxylase-positive cells using double-label immunohistochemistry. We found increased neural activity specifically in the preoptic area nonapeptide neurons of winners, whereas we found no differences in activity of dopaminergic cells among behavioral groups. Our findings suggest the neural correlates of aggression in poison frog tadpoles are similar to neural mechanisms mediating aggression in adults and juveniles of other vertebrate taxa.

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Hormonal and neural correlates of care in active versus observing poison frog parents

Hormones and Behavior ◽

10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104696 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 120 ◽

pp. 104696 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Eva K. Fischer ◽

Lauren A. O'Connell

Keyword(s):

Neural Correlates ◽

Poison Frog

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Poison frog tadpoles seek parental transportation to escape their cannibalistic siblings

Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1111/jzo.12472 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 303 (2) ◽

pp. 83-89 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

L. M. Schulte ◽

M. Mayer

Keyword(s):

Poison Frog ◽

Frog Tadpoles

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Hormonal and neural correlates of care in active versus observing poison frog parents

10.1101/765503 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Eva K Fischer ◽

Lauren A O'Connell

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Parental Care ◽

Neural Activity ◽

Parental Behavior ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Expression Patterns ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Poison Frog ◽

Hormone Levels ◽

Brain Gene Expression

The occasional reversal of sex-typical behavior suggests that many of the neural circuits underlying behavior are conserved between males and females and can be activated in response to the appropriate social condition or stimulus. Most poison frog species (Family Dendrobatidae) exhibit male uniparental care, but flexible compensation has been observed in some species, where females will take over parental care duties when males disappear. We investigated hormonal and neural correlates of sex-typical and sex-reversed parental care in a typically male uniparental species, the Dyeing Poison Frog (Dendrobates tinctorius). We first characterized hormone levels and whole brain gene expression across parental care stages during sex-typical care. Surprisingly, hormonal changes and brain gene expression differences associated with active parental behavior in males were mirrored in their non-caregiving female partners. To further explore the disconnect between neuroendocrine patterns and behavior, we characterized hormone levels and neural activity patterns in females performing sex-reversed parental care. In contrast to hormone and gene expression patterns, we found that patterns of neural activity were linked to the active performance of parental behavior, with sex-reversed tadpole transporting females exhibiting neural activity patterns more similar to those of transporting males than non-caregiving females. We suggest that parallels in hormones and brain gene expression in active and observing parents are related to females ability to flexibly take over parental care in the absence of their male partners.

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Naïve Poison Frog tadpoles use bi-modal cues to avoid insect predators but not heterospecific predatory tadpoles

Journal of Experimental Biology ◽

10.1242/jeb.243647 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Birgit Szabo ◽

Rosanna Mangione ◽

Matthias Rath ◽

Andrius Pašukonis ◽

Stephan A. Reber ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Predator Avoidance ◽

Visual Cues ◽

Chemical Information ◽

Water Control ◽

Poison Frog ◽

Appropriate Behavior ◽

Frog Tadpoles ◽

Allobates Femoralis ◽

Insect Predators ◽

Individual Design

For animals to survive until reproduction, it is crucial that juveniles successfully detect potential predators and respond with appropriate behavior. The recognition of cues originating from predators can be innate or learned. Cues of various modalities might be used alone or in multi-modal combinations to detect and distinguish predators but studies investigating multi-modal integration in predator avoidance are scarce. Here, we used wild, naive tadpoles of the Neotropical Poison Frog Allobates femoralis (Boulenger, 1884) to test their reaction to cues with two modalities from two different sympatrically occurring potential predators: heterospecific predatory Dendrobates tinctorius tadpoles and dragonfly larvae. We presented A. femoralis tadpoles with olfactory or visual cues, or a combination of both and compared their reaction to a water-control in a between-individual design. In our trials, A. femoralis tadpoles reacted to multimodal stimuli (a combination of visual and chemical information) originating from dragonfly larvae with avoidance but showed no reaction to uni-modal cues or cues from heterospecific tadpoles. In addition, visual cues from conspecifics increased swimming activity while cues from predators had no effect on tadpole activity. Our results show that A. femoralis tadpoles can innately recognize some predators and likely need both visual and chemical information to effectively avoid them. This is the first study looking at anti-predator behavior in Poison Frog tadpoles. We discuss how parental care might influence the expression of predator avoidance responses in tadpoles.

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Alkaloid avoidance in poison frog tadpoles

10.1101/2022.01.12.476122 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Eugenia Sanchez ◽

Travis Ramirez ◽

Lauren A O'Connell

Keyword(s):

Locomotor Activity ◽

Secondary Metabolites ◽

Feeding Behavior ◽

Chemical Defense ◽

Poison Frog ◽

Poison Frogs ◽

Frog Tadpoles ◽

Ranitomeya Imitator

Animals show a spectrum of avoidance-tolerance to foods containing toxic secondary metabolites. However, this spectrum has not been evaluated in animals that may actively seek out these compounds as a chemical defense. Poison frogs sequester toxic and unpalatable alkaloids from their diet, and in some species, tadpoles are exposed to these toxins before the development of their skin granular glands, which are used for toxin compartmentalization. Here, we examined the effects of the alkaloid decahydroquinoline (DHQ) in tadpoles of the Mimetic poison frog, Ranitomeya imitator, using alkaloid supplemented food. We found that although their survival is lowered by the alkaloid, their development is only mildly affected, with no evident effects on their growth. Furthermore, locomotor activity and feeding behavior was altered in the first week of DHQ treatment, probably in part through nicotinic blockade. However, after two weeks, tadpoles learned to avoid the alkaloid by visiting the food area only when necessary to eat. Our results suggest that poison frogs navigate the avoidance-tolerance spectrum during the development of their sequestration machinery.

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Empirical evidence for multiple costs of begging in poison frog tadpoles

Zoologischer Anzeiger ◽

10.1016/j.jcz.2018.01.012 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 273 ◽

pp. 203-209 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jennifer L. Stynoski ◽

Peter B. Stynoski ◽

Virginia R. Noble

Keyword(s):

Empirical Evidence ◽

Poison Frog ◽

Frog Tadpoles

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Maternally derived chemical defences are an effective deterrent against some predators of poison frog tadpoles ( Oophaga pumilio )

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2014.0187 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 20140187 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Jennifer L. Stynoski ◽

Georgia Shelton ◽

Peter Stynoski

Keyword(s):

Recent Work ◽

Poison Frog ◽

Chemical Defences ◽

Oophaga Pumilio ◽

Risk Of Predation ◽

Choice Tests ◽

Frog Tadpoles ◽

Effective Deterrent

Parents defend their young in many ways, including provisioning chemical defences. Recent work in a poison frog system offers the first example of an animal that provisions its young with alkaloids after hatching or birth rather than before. But it is not yet known whether maternally derived alkaloids are an effective defence against offspring predators. We identified the predators of Oophaga pumilio tadpoles and conducted laboratory and field choice tests to determine whether predators are deterred by alkaloids in tadpoles. We found that snakes, spiders and beetle larvae are common predators of O. pumilio tadpoles. Snakes were not deterred by alkaloids in tadpoles. However, spiders were less likely to consume mother-fed O. pumilio tadpoles than either alkaloid-free tadpoles of the red-eyed treefrog, Agalychnis callidryas , or alkaloid-free O. pumilio tadpoles that had been hand-fed with A. callidryas eggs. Thus, maternally derived alkaloids reduce the risk of predation for tadpoles, but only against some predators.

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