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Bare-Part Color in Female Budgerigars Changes from Brown to Structural Blue following Testosterone Treatment but Is Not Strongly Masculinized

Whereas several studies have shown that experimentally increased levels of the androgenic steroid testosterone can affect female behavior, fewer studies have focused on the activational effects of exogenous testosterone on female morphology. With respect to colorful displays in birds, almost exclusi...

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Autores principales: Lahaye, Stefanie E. P., Eens, Marcel, Darras, Veerle M., Pinxten, Rianne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3901734/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24475184
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086849
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author Lahaye, Stefanie E. P.
Eens, Marcel
Darras, Veerle M.
Pinxten, Rianne
author_facet Lahaye, Stefanie E. P.
Eens, Marcel
Darras, Veerle M.
Pinxten, Rianne
author_sort Lahaye, Stefanie E. P.
collection PubMed
description Whereas several studies have shown that experimentally increased levels of the androgenic steroid testosterone can affect female behavior, fewer studies have focused on the activational effects of exogenous testosterone on female morphology. With respect to colorful displays in birds, almost exclusively the effects of testosterone manipulation on female carotenoid-based colorations have been studied. Other color types such as structural colors (i.e. UV, blue and violet colors that result from differential light reflection in the nanostructures of the tissue) remain largely unstudied. Here, we investigated the short- and long-term effects of exogenous testosterone on the expression of structural bare-part coloration in female budgerigars, Melopsittacus undulatus. In this parrot species, bare-part coloration is expressed in the cere, a structure over the beak which is brown in females and structural blue in males. We experimentally increased plasma testosterone levels in testosterone-treated females (T-females) compared to controls (C-females) and we performed weekly spectrophotometric measurements of the cere for five weeks after implantation and one measurement after ten weeks. We also estimated the extent to which testosterone masculinized female cere color by comparing the experimental females with untreated males. We found significant effects of testosterone on cere color from week four after implantation onwards. T-females expressed significantly bluer ceres than C-females with higher values for brightness and UV reflectance. T-female cere color, however, remained significantly less blue than in males, while values for brightness and UV reflectance were significantly higher in T-females than in males. Our quantitative results show that exogenous testosterone induces the expression of structural blue color in females but does not strongly masculinize female cere coloration. We provide several potential pathways for the action of testosterone on structural color.
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spelling pubmed-39017342014-01-28 Bare-Part Color in Female Budgerigars Changes from Brown to Structural Blue following Testosterone Treatment but Is Not Strongly Masculinized Lahaye, Stefanie E. P. Eens, Marcel Darras, Veerle M. Pinxten, Rianne PLoS One Research Article Whereas several studies have shown that experimentally increased levels of the androgenic steroid testosterone can affect female behavior, fewer studies have focused on the activational effects of exogenous testosterone on female morphology. With respect to colorful displays in birds, almost exclusively the effects of testosterone manipulation on female carotenoid-based colorations have been studied. Other color types such as structural colors (i.e. UV, blue and violet colors that result from differential light reflection in the nanostructures of the tissue) remain largely unstudied. Here, we investigated the short- and long-term effects of exogenous testosterone on the expression of structural bare-part coloration in female budgerigars, Melopsittacus undulatus. In this parrot species, bare-part coloration is expressed in the cere, a structure over the beak which is brown in females and structural blue in males. We experimentally increased plasma testosterone levels in testosterone-treated females (T-females) compared to controls (C-females) and we performed weekly spectrophotometric measurements of the cere for five weeks after implantation and one measurement after ten weeks. We also estimated the extent to which testosterone masculinized female cere color by comparing the experimental females with untreated males. We found significant effects of testosterone on cere color from week four after implantation onwards. T-females expressed significantly bluer ceres than C-females with higher values for brightness and UV reflectance. T-female cere color, however, remained significantly less blue than in males, while values for brightness and UV reflectance were significantly higher in T-females than in males. Our quantitative results show that exogenous testosterone induces the expression of structural blue color in females but does not strongly masculinize female cere coloration. We provide several potential pathways for the action of testosterone on structural color. Public Library of Science 2014-01-24 /pmc/articles/PMC3901734/ /pubmed/24475184 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086849 Text en © 2014 Lahaye 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
Lahaye, Stefanie E. P.
Eens, Marcel
Darras, Veerle M.
Pinxten, Rianne
Bare-Part Color in Female Budgerigars Changes from Brown to Structural Blue following Testosterone Treatment but Is Not Strongly Masculinized
title Bare-Part Color in Female Budgerigars Changes from Brown to Structural Blue following Testosterone Treatment but Is Not Strongly Masculinized
title_full Bare-Part Color in Female Budgerigars Changes from Brown to Structural Blue following Testosterone Treatment but Is Not Strongly Masculinized
title_fullStr Bare-Part Color in Female Budgerigars Changes from Brown to Structural Blue following Testosterone Treatment but Is Not Strongly Masculinized
title_full_unstemmed Bare-Part Color in Female Budgerigars Changes from Brown to Structural Blue following Testosterone Treatment but Is Not Strongly Masculinized
title_short Bare-Part Color in Female Budgerigars Changes from Brown to Structural Blue following Testosterone Treatment but Is Not Strongly Masculinized
title_sort bare-part color in female budgerigars changes from brown to structural blue following testosterone treatment but is not strongly masculinized
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3901734/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24475184
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086849
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