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Love Is Blind: Indiscriminate Female Mating Responses to Male Courtship Pheromones in Newts (Salamandridae)

Internal fertilization without copulation or prolonged physical contact is a rare reproductive mode among vertebrates. In many newts (Salamandridae), the male deposits a spermatophore on the substrate in the water, which the female subsequently takes up with her cloaca. Because such an insemination...

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Autores principales: Treer, Dag, Van Bocxlaer, Ines, Matthijs, Severine, Du Four, Dimitri, Janssenswillen, Sunita, Willaert, Bert, Bossuyt, Franky
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3574087/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23457580
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056538
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author Treer, Dag
Van Bocxlaer, Ines
Matthijs, Severine
Du Four, Dimitri
Janssenswillen, Sunita
Willaert, Bert
Bossuyt, Franky
author_facet Treer, Dag
Van Bocxlaer, Ines
Matthijs, Severine
Du Four, Dimitri
Janssenswillen, Sunita
Willaert, Bert
Bossuyt, Franky
author_sort Treer, Dag
collection PubMed
description Internal fertilization without copulation or prolonged physical contact is a rare reproductive mode among vertebrates. In many newts (Salamandridae), the male deposits a spermatophore on the substrate in the water, which the female subsequently takes up with her cloaca. Because such an insemination requires intense coordination of both sexes, male newts have evolved a courtship display, essentially consisting of sending pheromones under water by tail-fanning towards their potential partner. Behavioral experiments until now mostly focused on an attractant function, i.e. showing that olfactory cues are able to bring both sexes together. However, since males start their display only after an initial contact phase, courtship pheromones are expected to have an alternative function. Here we developed a series of intraspecific and interspecific two-female experiments with alpine newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris) and palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus) females, comparing behavior in male courtship water and control water. We show that male olfactory cues emitted during tail-fanning are pheromones that can induce all typical features of natural female mating behavior. Interestingly, females exposed to male pheromones of their own species show indiscriminate mating responses to conspecific and heterospecific females, indicating that visual cues are subordinate to olfactory cues during courtship.
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spelling pubmed-35740872013-03-01 Love Is Blind: Indiscriminate Female Mating Responses to Male Courtship Pheromones in Newts (Salamandridae) Treer, Dag Van Bocxlaer, Ines Matthijs, Severine Du Four, Dimitri Janssenswillen, Sunita Willaert, Bert Bossuyt, Franky PLoS One Research Article Internal fertilization without copulation or prolonged physical contact is a rare reproductive mode among vertebrates. In many newts (Salamandridae), the male deposits a spermatophore on the substrate in the water, which the female subsequently takes up with her cloaca. Because such an insemination requires intense coordination of both sexes, male newts have evolved a courtship display, essentially consisting of sending pheromones under water by tail-fanning towards their potential partner. Behavioral experiments until now mostly focused on an attractant function, i.e. showing that olfactory cues are able to bring both sexes together. However, since males start their display only after an initial contact phase, courtship pheromones are expected to have an alternative function. Here we developed a series of intraspecific and interspecific two-female experiments with alpine newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris) and palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus) females, comparing behavior in male courtship water and control water. We show that male olfactory cues emitted during tail-fanning are pheromones that can induce all typical features of natural female mating behavior. Interestingly, females exposed to male pheromones of their own species show indiscriminate mating responses to conspecific and heterospecific females, indicating that visual cues are subordinate to olfactory cues during courtship. Public Library of Science 2013-02-15 /pmc/articles/PMC3574087/ /pubmed/23457580 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056538 Text en © 2013 Treer et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Treer, Dag
Van Bocxlaer, Ines
Matthijs, Severine
Du Four, Dimitri
Janssenswillen, Sunita
Willaert, Bert
Bossuyt, Franky
Love Is Blind: Indiscriminate Female Mating Responses to Male Courtship Pheromones in Newts (Salamandridae)
title Love Is Blind: Indiscriminate Female Mating Responses to Male Courtship Pheromones in Newts (Salamandridae)
title_full Love Is Blind: Indiscriminate Female Mating Responses to Male Courtship Pheromones in Newts (Salamandridae)
title_fullStr Love Is Blind: Indiscriminate Female Mating Responses to Male Courtship Pheromones in Newts (Salamandridae)
title_full_unstemmed Love Is Blind: Indiscriminate Female Mating Responses to Male Courtship Pheromones in Newts (Salamandridae)
title_short Love Is Blind: Indiscriminate Female Mating Responses to Male Courtship Pheromones in Newts (Salamandridae)
title_sort love is blind: indiscriminate female mating responses to male courtship pheromones in newts (salamandridae)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3574087/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23457580
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056538
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