Results | University of Saint Joseph Research Output

Cardoso, S. D., Gonçalves, D., Goesmann, A., Canário, A. V. M., & Oliveira, R. F. (2018). Temporal variation in brain transcriptome is associated with the expression of female mimicry as a sequential male alternative reproductive tactic in fish. Molecular Ecology, 27(3), 789–803. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14408

Distinct patterns of gene expression often underlie intra- and intersexual differences, and the study of this set of coregulated genes is essential to understand the emergence of complex behavioural phenotypes. Here, we describe the development of a de novo transcriptome and brain gene expression profiles of wild-caught peacock blenny, Salaria pavo, an intertidal fish with sex-role reversal in courtship behaviour (i.e., females are the courting sex) and sequential alternative reproductive tactics in males (i.e., larger and older nest-holder males and smaller and younger sneaker males occur). Sneakers mimic both female's courtship behaviour and nuptial coloration to get access to nests and sneak fertilizations, and later in life transition into nest-holder males. Thus, this species offers the unique opportunity to study how the regulation of gene expression can contribute to intersex phenotypes and to the sequential expression of male and female behavioural phenotypes by the same individual. We found that at the whole brain level, expression of the sneaker tactic was paralleled by broader and divergent gene expression when compared to either females or nest-holder males, which were more similar between themselves. When looking at sex-biased transcripts, sneaker males are intersex rather than being either nest-holder or female-like, and their transcriptome is simultaneously demasculinized for nest-holder-biased transcripts and feminized for female-biased transcripts. These results indicate that evolutionary changes in reproductive plasticity can be achieved through regulation of gene expression, and in particular by varying the magnitude of expression of sex-biased genes, throughout the lifetime of the same individual.

Cardoso, S. D., Faustino, A. I., Costa, S. S., Valério, F., Gonçalves, D., & Oliveira, R. F. (2017). Social network predicts loss of fertilizations in nesting males of a fish with alternative reproductive tactics. Acta Ethologica, 20(1), 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-016-0249-9

Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) evolve when there is strong intra-sexual competition between conspecifics for access to mates. Typically, larger “bourgeois” males reproduce by securing the access to reproductive resources while smaller “parasitic” males reproduce by stealing fertilizations from larger males. A number of factors can influence the reproductive success of each tactic, including intrinsic (e.g. size) and extrinsic (e.g. tactic relative frequency) variables. An example where plastic ARTs occur is the peacock blenny Salaria pavo, with large males reproducing by defending nests and attracting females (bourgeois tactic) and small males reproducing by achieving sneaked fertilizations (parasitic tactic). In this study, we conducted field observations on individually tagged animals to determine their social network and collected eggs from 11 nests to determine the fertilization success of each male tactic. Paternity estimates for 550 offspring indicated an average fertilization success for nest-holder males of 95%. Nest-holder male morphological traits and social network parameters were tested as predictors of fertilization success, but only the number of sneakers present in the nest-holder’s social networks was found to be a predictor of paternity loss. Although male morphological traits had been previously found to be strongly correlated with reproductive success of nest-holder males, as measured by the number of eggs collected in the male’s nest, no correlation was found between any of the measured morphological traits and fertilization success for these males. The results suggest a stronger influence of the social environment than of morphological variables in the proportion of lost fertilizations by nest-holder males of this species.

Fagundes, T., Simões, M. G., Gonçalves, D., & Oliveira, R. F. (2012). Social cues in the expression of sequential alternative reproductive tactics in young males of the peacock blenny, Salaria pavo. Physiology & Behavior, 107(3), 283–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2012.07.011

Oliveira, R. F., Simões, M. G., Gonçalves, D., & Saraiva, J. L. (2011). Plasticity in reproductive behaviour in two populations of the peacock blenny. Behaviour, 148(14), 1457–1472. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853911X617089

Gonçalves, D. (2014). Oestradiol and prostaglandin F2α regulate sexual display in female of a sex-role reversed fish. 281(1778).

Gonçalves, D., Félix, A. S., & Oliveira, R. F. (2017). Neuroendocrinology of Social Behavior in Teleost Fish. In Hormones, Brain and Behavior (pp. 3–18). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-803592-4.00020-1

Saraiva, J. L., Pignolo, G., Gonçalves, D., & Oliveira, R. F. (2012). Interpopulational variation of the mating system in the peacock blenny Salaria pavo. Acta Ethologica, 15(1), 25–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-011-0104-y

Gonçalves, D., & Oliveira, R. F. (2011). Hormones and Sexual Behavior of Teleost Fishes. In Hormones and Reproduction of Vertebrates (pp. 119–147). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-375009-9.10007-4

Gonçalves, D. (2018). FIGHT – Hormonal, pheromonal and genomic regulation of aggression in a fish model [Research Report]. University of Saint Joseph.

Cardoso, S. D., Gonçalves, D., Robalo, J. I., Almada, V. C., Canário, A. V. M., & Oliveira, R. F. (2013). Efficient isolation of polymorphic microsatellites from high-throughput sequence data based on number of repeats. Marine Genomics, 11, 11–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margen.2013.04.002

Saraiva, J. L., Gonçalves, D., & Oliveira, R. F. (2013). Ecological modulation of reproductive behaviour in the peacock blenny: a mini-review. Fish Physiology and Biochemistry, 39(1), 85–89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-012-9658-5

Fan, G., Chan, J., Ma, K., Yang, B., Zhang, H., Yang, X., Shi, C., Law, H., Ren, Z., Xu, Q., Liu, Q., Wang, J., Chen, W., Shao, L., Gonçalves, D., Ramos, A., Cardoso, S. D., Guo, M., Cai, J., … Wang, Y. (2018). Chromosome-level reference genome of the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens, a model species for the study of aggression. GigaScience. https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giy087

Fagundes, T., Simões, M. G., Saraiva, J. L., Ros, A. F. H., Gonçalves, D., & Oliveira, R. F. (2015). Birth date predicts alternative life‐history pathways in a fish with sequential reproductive tactics. Functional Ecology, 29(12), 1533–1542. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.12465

Gonçalves, D. M. F. (2016). Behavioral plasticity meets neuroplasticity: brain neurogenesis in the polymorphic fish Salaria pavo [Research Report]. University of Saint Joseph.

Gonçalves, D. (2014). Alternative pathway history in a fish with plastic reproductive tactic. Functional Ecology.

Your search

Results 15 resources

Explore

Academic Units

Resource type

Publication year