Induced expression of a vestigial sexual signal.

ABSTRACT: Vestigial morphological traits are common and well known in a variety of taxa. Identification of vestigial genes has illustrated the potential for evolutionary reversals and the re-expression of atavistic traits. Here we induce expression of a behavioural sexual signal, male calling song, in a cricket species, Gryllus ovisopis, which lacks a functional calling song. We successfully used acetylcholine injections in the frontal space of the head of male crickets to activate cerebral command neurons for cricket calling, and we recorded calling songs with a temporal chirp pattern similar to that of G. ovisopis' close evolutionary relatives, G. firmus and G. pennsylvanicus, implying that the neural pattern generators that underlie cricket calling behaviour persist in

SUBMITTER: Gray DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6012708 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature