scholarly journals Testing synaptic plasticity in dynamic mate choice decisions: N -methyl d -aspartate receptor blockade disrupts female preference

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1785) ◽  
pp. 20140047 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary E. Ramsey ◽  
Wendy Vu ◽  
Molly E. Cummings
Keyword(s):  
Synaptic Plasticity ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Behavioural Plasticity ◽  
Aspartate Receptor ◽  
Poeciliid Fish ◽  
Preference Functions ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Social Behaviours

Social behaviours such as mate choice require context-specific responses, often with evolutionary consequences. Increasing evidence indicates that the behavioural plasticity associated with mate choice involves learning. For example, poeciliids show age-dependent changes in female preference functions and express synaptic-plasticity-associated molecular markers during mate choice. Here, we test whether social cognition is necessary for female preference behaviour by blocking the central player in synaptic plasticity, NMDAR ( N -methyl d -aspartate receptor), in a poeciliid fish, Xiphophorus nigrensis . After subchronic exposure to NMDAR antagonist MK-801, female preference behaviours towards males were dramatically reduced. Overall activity levels were unaffected, but there was a directional shift from ‘social’ behaviours towards neutral activity. Multivariate gene expression patterns significantly discriminated between females with normal versus disrupted plasticity processes and correlated with preference behaviours—not general activity. Furthermore, molecular patterns support a distinction between ‘preference’ (e.g. neuroserpin , neuroligin-3 , NMDAR ) and ‘sociality’ ( isotocin and vasotocin ) gene clusters, highlighting a possible conservation between NMDAR disruption and nonapeptides in modulating behaviour. Our results suggest that mate preference may involve greater social memory processing than overall sociality, and that poeciliid preference functions integrate synaptic-plasticity-oriented ‘preference’ pathways with overall sociality to invoke dynamic, context-specific responses towards favoured males and away from unfavoured males.

scholarly journals On the architecture of mate choice decisions: preference functions and choosiness are distinct traits

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1897) ◽  
pp. 20182830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Neelon ◽  
Rafael L. Rodríguez ◽  
Gerlinde Höbel
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Preference Function ◽  
Hyla Cinerea ◽  
Female Body Size ◽  
Preference Functions ◽  
Rapid Divergence ◽  
Sexual Traits ◽  
Green Treefrogs

Mate choice is an important cause of sexual selection; it can drive the evolution of extravagant ornaments and displays, and promote speciation through the reproductive isolation generated by rapid divergence of sexual traits. Understanding mate choice requires knowledge of the traits involved in generating mate-choice decisions, and how those traits may interact with each other. It has been proposed that mate-choice decisions are the outcome of two components that vary independently: the preference function (the ranking of the attractiveness of prospective mates) and choosiness (the effort invested in mate assessment). Here we test this hypothesis by examining individual variation in female preference functions and choosiness in green treefrogs ( Hyla cinerea ). We show that measures describing preference functions and choosiness are not correlated. We also show that both components are influenced differently by variation in female body size, and that preference function shape (closed and preferring intermediate values or open-ended and preferring extremes) has a strong influence on this relationship: function traits are positively correlated with body size only for individuals with closed functions, while choosiness is positively correlated with body size for individuals with open functions, but negatively for those with closed functions.

scholarly journals Regulostat Inferelator: a novel network biology platform to uncover molecular devices that predetermine cellular response phenotypes

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (14) ◽  
pp. e82-e82
Author(s):  
Choong Yong Ung ◽  
Mehrab Ghanat Bari ◽  
Cheng Zhang ◽  
Jingjing Liang ◽  
Cristina Correia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cellular Response ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Molecular Devices ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Genetic Circuits ◽  
Continuous Response ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
First Time ◽  
Phenotypic Responses

Abstract With the emergence of genome editing technologies and synthetic biology, it is now possible to engineer genetic circuits driving a cell's phenotypic response to a stressor. However, capturing a continuous response, rather than simply a binary ‘on’ or ‘off’ response, remains a bioengineering challenge. No tools currently exist to identify gene candidates responsible for predetermining and fine-tuning cell response phenotypes. To address this gap, we devised a novel Regulostat Inferelator (RSI) algorithm to decipher intrinsic molecular devices or networks that predetermine cellular phenotypic responses. The RSI algorithm is designed to extract gene expression patterns from basal transcriptomic data in order to identify ‘regulostat’ constituent gene pairs, which exhibit rheostat-like mode-of-cooperation capable of fine-tuning cellular response. Our proof-of-concept study provides computational evidence for the existence of regulostats and that these networks predetermine cellular response prior to exposure to a stressor or drug. In addition, our work, for the first time, provides evidence of context-specific, drug–regulostat interactions in predetermining drug response phenotypes in cancer cells. Given RSI-inferred regulostat networks offer insights for prioritizing gene candidates capable of rendering a resistant phenotype sensitive to a given drug, we envision that this tool will be of great value in bioengineering and medicine.

scholarly journals (2S,6S)- and (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine inhibit the induction of NMDA receptor-dependent LTP at hippocampal CA1 synapses in mice

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 239821282095784
Author(s):  
Heather Kang ◽  
Pojeong Park ◽  
Muchun Han ◽  
Patrick Tidball ◽  
John Georgiou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Synaptic Plasticity ◽  
Nmda Receptor ◽  
Long Term Potentiation ◽  
Aspartate Receptor ◽  
Term Potentiation ◽  
Hippocampal Ca1 ◽  
Mouse Hippocampus ◽  
Site Of Action ◽  
A Site

The ketamine metabolite (2 R,6 R)-hydroxynorketamine has been proposed to have rapid and persistent antidepressant actions in rodents, but its mechanism of action is controversial. We have compared the ability of ( R,S)-ketamine with the (2 S,6 S)- and (2 R,6 R)-isomers of hydroxynorketamine to affect the induction of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor–dependent long-term potentiation in the mouse hippocampus. Following pre-incubation of these compounds, we observed a concentration-dependent (1–10 μM) inhibition of long-term potentiation by ketamine and a similar effect of (2 S,6 S)-hydroxynorketamine. At a concentration of 10 μM, (2 R,6 R)-hydroxynorketamine also inhibited the induction of long-term potentiation. These findings raise the possibility that inhibition of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor–mediated synaptic plasticity is a site of action of the hydroxynorketamine metabolites with respect to their rapid and long-lasting antidepressant-like effects.

scholarly journals Genetic association between male attractiveness and female differential allocation

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan L Head ◽  
John Hunt ◽  
Robert Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Genetic Association ◽  
Reproductive Effort ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Acheta Domesticus ◽  
Female Size ◽  
Differential Allocation ◽  
Male Attractiveness ◽  
Analogous Manner

Differential allocation of reproductive effort towards offspring of attractive mates is a form of post-copulatory mate choice. Although differential allocation has been demonstrated in many taxa, its evolutionary implications have received little attention. Theory predicts that mate choice will lead to a positive genetic correlation between female preference and male attractiveness. This prediction has been upheld for pre-copulatory mate choice, but whether such a relationship between male attractiveness and female differential allocation exists has never been tested. Here, we show that both female pre-copulatory mate choice and post-copulatory differential allocation are genetically associated with male attractiveness in house crickets, Acheta domesticus . Daughters of attractive males mated sooner and laid more eggs when paired with larger males. These forms of mate choice are strongest in large females, suggesting that costs decrease with increasing female size. The genetic association between attractiveness and differential allocation suggests potential for differential allocation to become exaggerated by coevolutionary runaway processes in an analogous manner to pre-copulatory choice. Sexual selection is thus likely to be stronger than predicted by pre-copulatory choice alone.

scholarly journals Mate choice decisions by searchers

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel D. Wiegmann ◽  
Lisa M. Angeloni ◽  
Steven M. Seubert ◽  
J. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Theoretical Foundation ◽  
Sequential Search ◽  
Male Quality ◽  
Phenotypic Characters ◽  
Fixed Sample ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Preference Functions ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

Abstract For more than two decades rudimentary versions of the fixed sample and sequential search strategies have provided the primary theoretical foundation for the study of mate choice decisions by searchers. The theory that surrounds these models has expanded markedly over this time period. In this paper, we review and extend results derived from these models, with a focus on the empirical analysis of searcher behavior. The basic models are impractical for empirical purposes because they rely on the assumption that searchers—and, for applied purposes, researchers—assess prospective mates based on their quality, the fitness consequences of mate choice decisions. Here we expound versions of the models that are more empirically useful, reformulated to reflect decisions based on male phenotypic characters. For some organisms, it may be possible to use preference functions to derive predictions from the reformulated models and thereby avoid difficulties associated with the measurement of male quality per se. But predictions derived from the two models are difficult to differentiate empirically, regardless of how the models are formulated. Here we develop ideas that illustrate how this goal might be accomplished. In addition, we clarify how the variability of male quality should be evaluated and we extend what is known about how this variability influences searcher behavior under each model. More general difficulties associated with the empirical study of mate choice decisions by searchers are also discussed.

scholarly journals Female preference functions based on call duration in the gray tree frog (Hyla versicolor)

2000 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 663-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Carl Gerhardt ◽  
Steven D. Tanner ◽  
Candice M. Corrigan ◽  
Hilary C. Walton
Keyword(s):  
Female Preference ◽  
Hyla Versicolor ◽  
Tree Frog ◽  
Call Duration ◽  
Preference Functions ◽  
Gray Tree Frog
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