Sex-specific perceptual spaces for a vertebrate basal social aggregative behavior.

ABSTRACT: Loose aggregations of fishes, or shoals, are a basal social organization of vertebrates and offer a valuable opportunity to determine how individual perceptions influence group formation. We used zebrafish, Danio rerio, to comprehensively investigate the preference space for shoaling related to adult pigment pattern variation, presented in the form of 17 zebrafish pigment pattern mutants or closely related species. We examined all combinations of these phenotypes in 2,920 initial and replicated preference tests, and used as subjects both domesticated laboratory stocks and wild-caught fish. By using multidimensional scaling and other approaches, we show that laboratory and wild zebrafish exhibit similar preferences, yet, unexpectedly, these preferences differ markedly between sexes, and als

SUBMITTER: Engeszer RE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2242707 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature