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Male Courtship Pheromones Induce Cloacal Gaping in Female Newts (Salamandridae)

Pheromones are an important component of sexual communication in courting salamanders, but the number of species in which their use has been demonstrated with behavioral evidence remains limited. Here we developed a behavioral assay for demonstrating courtship pheromone use in the aquatically courti...

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Autores principales: Janssenswillen, Sunita, Bossuyt, Franky
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4714853/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26771882
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144985
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author Janssenswillen, Sunita
Bossuyt, Franky
author_facet Janssenswillen, Sunita
Bossuyt, Franky
author_sort Janssenswillen, Sunita
collection PubMed
description Pheromones are an important component of sexual communication in courting salamanders, but the number of species in which their use has been demonstrated with behavioral evidence remains limited. Here we developed a behavioral assay for demonstrating courtship pheromone use in the aquatically courting Iberian ribbed newt Pleurodeles waltl. By performing an in-depth study of the courtship behavior, we show that females invariably open their cloaca (cloacal gaping) before engaging in pinwheel behavior, the circling movement that is the prelude to spermatophore uptake. In contrast, cloacal gaping was not observed in failed courtships, where females escaped or displayed thanatosis. Since gaping mainly occurred during male amplexus and cloacal imposition, which is the obvious period of pheromone transfer, we next investigated whether male courtship water (i.e., water holding courtship pheromones) alone was able to induce this reaction in females. These tests showed that courtship water induced cloacal gaping significantly more than water, even in the absence of a male. Cloacal gaping thus provides a simple and robust test for demonstrating courtship pheromone use in the Iberian ribbed newt. Since opening the cloaca is an essential prerequisite for spermatophore pick-up in all internally fertilizing salamanders, we hypothesize that variations on this assay will also be useful in several other species.
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spelling pubmed-47148532016-01-30 Male Courtship Pheromones Induce Cloacal Gaping in Female Newts (Salamandridae) Janssenswillen, Sunita Bossuyt, Franky PLoS One Research Article Pheromones are an important component of sexual communication in courting salamanders, but the number of species in which their use has been demonstrated with behavioral evidence remains limited. Here we developed a behavioral assay for demonstrating courtship pheromone use in the aquatically courting Iberian ribbed newt Pleurodeles waltl. By performing an in-depth study of the courtship behavior, we show that females invariably open their cloaca (cloacal gaping) before engaging in pinwheel behavior, the circling movement that is the prelude to spermatophore uptake. In contrast, cloacal gaping was not observed in failed courtships, where females escaped or displayed thanatosis. Since gaping mainly occurred during male amplexus and cloacal imposition, which is the obvious period of pheromone transfer, we next investigated whether male courtship water (i.e., water holding courtship pheromones) alone was able to induce this reaction in females. These tests showed that courtship water induced cloacal gaping significantly more than water, even in the absence of a male. Cloacal gaping thus provides a simple and robust test for demonstrating courtship pheromone use in the Iberian ribbed newt. Since opening the cloaca is an essential prerequisite for spermatophore pick-up in all internally fertilizing salamanders, we hypothesize that variations on this assay will also be useful in several other species. Public Library of Science 2016-01-15 /pmc/articles/PMC4714853/ /pubmed/26771882 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144985 Text en © 2016 Janssenswillen, Bossuyt http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Janssenswillen, Sunita
Bossuyt, Franky
Male Courtship Pheromones Induce Cloacal Gaping in Female Newts (Salamandridae)
title Male Courtship Pheromones Induce Cloacal Gaping in Female Newts (Salamandridae)
title_full Male Courtship Pheromones Induce Cloacal Gaping in Female Newts (Salamandridae)
title_fullStr Male Courtship Pheromones Induce Cloacal Gaping in Female Newts (Salamandridae)
title_full_unstemmed Male Courtship Pheromones Induce Cloacal Gaping in Female Newts (Salamandridae)
title_short Male Courtship Pheromones Induce Cloacal Gaping in Female Newts (Salamandridae)
title_sort male courtship pheromones induce cloacal gaping in female newts (salamandridae)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4714853/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26771882
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144985
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