Adaptive reshaping of the hormonal phenotype after social niche transition in adulthood.

ABSTRACT: Phenotypic plasticity allows individuals to adjust traits to the environment. Whether long-term adjustments of the phenotype occur during later life stages is largely unknown. To address this question, we examined whether hormonal phenotypes that are shaped by the environment during adolescence can still be reshaped in full adulthood. For this, guinea pig males were either housed in mixed-sex colonies or in heterosexual pairs. In adulthood, males were individually transferred to pair housing with a female. This way, a social niche transition was induced in colony-housed males, but not in pair-housed males. Before transfer, corresponding to findings in adolescence, adult colony-housed males showed significantly higher baseline testosterone levels and lower cortisol responsiveness than pair-

SUBMITTER: Mutwill AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7341945 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature