Plastic sex-trait modulation by differential gene expression according to social environment in male red deer.

ABSTRACT: Mate competition encourages individuals to modulate characters involved in mating success. Adult Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus) males show a dark ventral patch (DVP) that plays a central role in mating rivalry, whose size and chemical compounds varied according to the level of male-male competition within the population. In the pigmentation of the DVP appears, after urinary excretion, a molecule called DOPEG originating from the metabolism of norepinephrine, leading us to investigate whether differential expression mechanisms of key genes dopamine B-hydroxylase (DBH) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), encoding enzymes catalyzing the process can be sensitive to different competitive population situations and responsible for the plastic development of the DVP in red deer. We found

SUBMITTER: Broggini C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11837354 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature