Female cichlids attack and avoid-but will still mate with-androgen receptor mutant males that lack male-typical body coloration.

ABSTRACT: A key challenge in animal behavior is disentangling the social stimuli that drive conspecific behaviors. For behaviors like birdsong, insights can be made through the experimental isolation of relevant cues that affect behavior. However, for some species like teleost fish, putative sexual signaling cues are inextricably linked to others, making it difficult to parse the precise roles distinct signals play in driving conspecific behaviors. In the African cichlid Astatotilapia burtoni, males are dominant or subordinate, wherein bright coloration and territorial and courtship behavior inextricably correlate positively with rank. Here, we leveraged androgen receptor (AR) mutant male A. burtoni that lack dominance-typical coloration but not behavior to isolate the role of male col

SUBMITTER: Howard MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10635145 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature