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Artificial selection for male winners in the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens correlates with high female aggression

In Southeast Asia, males of the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens have been selected across centuries for paired-staged fights. During the selection process, matched for size males fight in a small tank until the contest is resolved. Breeders discard losing batches and reproduce winner batches w...

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Autores principales: Ramos, A., Gonçalves, D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6686523/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31406496
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12983-019-0333-x
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author Ramos, A.
Gonçalves, D.
author_facet Ramos, A.
Gonçalves, D.
author_sort Ramos, A.
collection PubMed
description In Southeast Asia, males of the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens have been selected across centuries for paired-staged fights. During the selection process, matched for size males fight in a small tank until the contest is resolved. Breeders discard losing batches and reproduce winner batches with the aim of increasing fight performance. We assessed the results of this long-term selection process by comparing under standard laboratory conditions male and female aggressive behaviour of one strain selected for staged fights (“fighters”) and one strain of wild-types. The aggressive response of adult fish was tested against their mirror image or a size-matched conspecific. Fighter males were more aggressive than wild-type males for all measured behaviours. Differences were not only quantitative but the pattern of fight display was also divergent. Fighter males had an overall higher swimming activity, performing frequent fast strikes in the direction of the intruder and displaying from a distance. Wild-type males were less active and exhibited aggressive displays mostly in close proximity to the stimuli. Females of the fighter strain, which are not used for fights, were also more aggressive than wild-type females. Aggressive behaviours were correlated across male and female fighter siblings, suggesting common genetic and physiological mechanisms to male and female aggression in this species. The study further shows that results were largely independent of the stimulus type, with the mirror test inducing similar and less variable responses than the live conspecific presentation. These results suggest that selection for male winners co-selected for high-frequency and metabolic demanding aggressive display in males and also enhanced female aggression, opening a wide range of testable hypothesis about the ultimate and proximate mechanisms of male and female aggression in B. splendens. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12983-019-0333-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-66865232019-08-12 Artificial selection for male winners in the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens correlates with high female aggression Ramos, A. Gonçalves, D. Front Zool Research In Southeast Asia, males of the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens have been selected across centuries for paired-staged fights. During the selection process, matched for size males fight in a small tank until the contest is resolved. Breeders discard losing batches and reproduce winner batches with the aim of increasing fight performance. We assessed the results of this long-term selection process by comparing under standard laboratory conditions male and female aggressive behaviour of one strain selected for staged fights (“fighters”) and one strain of wild-types. The aggressive response of adult fish was tested against their mirror image or a size-matched conspecific. Fighter males were more aggressive than wild-type males for all measured behaviours. Differences were not only quantitative but the pattern of fight display was also divergent. Fighter males had an overall higher swimming activity, performing frequent fast strikes in the direction of the intruder and displaying from a distance. Wild-type males were less active and exhibited aggressive displays mostly in close proximity to the stimuli. Females of the fighter strain, which are not used for fights, were also more aggressive than wild-type females. Aggressive behaviours were correlated across male and female fighter siblings, suggesting common genetic and physiological mechanisms to male and female aggression in this species. The study further shows that results were largely independent of the stimulus type, with the mirror test inducing similar and less variable responses than the live conspecific presentation. These results suggest that selection for male winners co-selected for high-frequency and metabolic demanding aggressive display in males and also enhanced female aggression, opening a wide range of testable hypothesis about the ultimate and proximate mechanisms of male and female aggression in B. splendens. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12983-019-0333-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2019-08-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6686523/ /pubmed/31406496 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12983-019-0333-x Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Ramos, A.
Gonçalves, D.
Artificial selection for male winners in the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens correlates with high female aggression
title Artificial selection for male winners in the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens correlates with high female aggression
title_full Artificial selection for male winners in the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens correlates with high female aggression
title_fullStr Artificial selection for male winners in the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens correlates with high female aggression
title_full_unstemmed Artificial selection for male winners in the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens correlates with high female aggression
title_short Artificial selection for male winners in the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens correlates with high female aggression
title_sort artificial selection for male winners in the siamese fighting fish betta splendens correlates with high female aggression
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6686523/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31406496
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12983-019-0333-x
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