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Host learning selects for the coevolution of greater egg mimicry and narrower antiparasitic egg-rejection thresholds

Egg rejection is an effective and widespread antiparasitic defense to eliminate foreign eggs from the nests of hosts of brood parasitic birds. Several lines of observational and critical experimental evidence support a role for learning by hosts in the recognition of parasitic versus own eggs; speci...

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Autores principales: Xu, Kuangyi, Servedio, Maria R, Winnicki, Sarah K, Moskat, Csaba, Hoover, Jeffrey P, Turner, Abbigail M, Hauber, Mark E
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10693006/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38045722
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrad041
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author Xu, Kuangyi
Servedio, Maria R
Winnicki, Sarah K
Moskat, Csaba
Hoover, Jeffrey P
Turner, Abbigail M
Hauber, Mark E
author_facet Xu, Kuangyi
Servedio, Maria R
Winnicki, Sarah K
Moskat, Csaba
Hoover, Jeffrey P
Turner, Abbigail M
Hauber, Mark E
author_sort Xu, Kuangyi
collection PubMed
description Egg rejection is an effective and widespread antiparasitic defense to eliminate foreign eggs from the nests of hosts of brood parasitic birds. Several lines of observational and critical experimental evidence support a role for learning by hosts in the recognition of parasitic versus own eggs; specifically, individual hosts that have had prior or current experience with brood parasitism are more likely to reject foreign eggs. Here we confirm experimentally the role of prior experience in altering subsequent egg-rejection decisions in the American robin Turdus migratorius, a free-living host species of an obligate brood parasite, the brown-headed cowbird Molothrus ater. We then model the coevolutionary trajectory of both the extent of mimicry of host eggs by parasitic eggs and the host’s egg rejection thresholds in response to an increasing role of learning in egg recognition. Critically, with more learning, we see the evolution of both narrower (more discriminating) rejection thresholds in hosts and greater egg mimicry in parasites. Increasing host clutch size (number of eggs/nest) and increasing parasite load (parasitism rate) also have narrowing effects on the egg-rejection threshold. Together, these results suggest that learning from prior experience with egg rejection may play an important role in the coevolution of egg-mimetic lineages of brood parasites and the refined egg rejection defenses of hosts.
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spelling pubmed-106930062023-12-03 Host learning selects for the coevolution of greater egg mimicry and narrower antiparasitic egg-rejection thresholds Xu, Kuangyi Servedio, Maria R Winnicki, Sarah K Moskat, Csaba Hoover, Jeffrey P Turner, Abbigail M Hauber, Mark E Evol Lett Letters Egg rejection is an effective and widespread antiparasitic defense to eliminate foreign eggs from the nests of hosts of brood parasitic birds. Several lines of observational and critical experimental evidence support a role for learning by hosts in the recognition of parasitic versus own eggs; specifically, individual hosts that have had prior or current experience with brood parasitism are more likely to reject foreign eggs. Here we confirm experimentally the role of prior experience in altering subsequent egg-rejection decisions in the American robin Turdus migratorius, a free-living host species of an obligate brood parasite, the brown-headed cowbird Molothrus ater. We then model the coevolutionary trajectory of both the extent of mimicry of host eggs by parasitic eggs and the host’s egg rejection thresholds in response to an increasing role of learning in egg recognition. Critically, with more learning, we see the evolution of both narrower (more discriminating) rejection thresholds in hosts and greater egg mimicry in parasites. Increasing host clutch size (number of eggs/nest) and increasing parasite load (parasitism rate) also have narrowing effects on the egg-rejection threshold. Together, these results suggest that learning from prior experience with egg rejection may play an important role in the coevolution of egg-mimetic lineages of brood parasites and the refined egg rejection defenses of hosts. Oxford University Press 2023-09-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10693006/ /pubmed/38045722 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrad041 Text en © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEN). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Letters
Xu, Kuangyi
Servedio, Maria R
Winnicki, Sarah K
Moskat, Csaba
Hoover, Jeffrey P
Turner, Abbigail M
Hauber, Mark E
Host learning selects for the coevolution of greater egg mimicry and narrower antiparasitic egg-rejection thresholds
title Host learning selects for the coevolution of greater egg mimicry and narrower antiparasitic egg-rejection thresholds
title_full Host learning selects for the coevolution of greater egg mimicry and narrower antiparasitic egg-rejection thresholds
title_fullStr Host learning selects for the coevolution of greater egg mimicry and narrower antiparasitic egg-rejection thresholds
title_full_unstemmed Host learning selects for the coevolution of greater egg mimicry and narrower antiparasitic egg-rejection thresholds
title_short Host learning selects for the coevolution of greater egg mimicry and narrower antiparasitic egg-rejection thresholds
title_sort host learning selects for the coevolution of greater egg mimicry and narrower antiparasitic egg-rejection thresholds
topic Letters
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10693006/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38045722
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrad041
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