Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, University Park, Miami, FL 33199, USA.
J Exp Biol. 2011 Jan 15;214(Pt 2):200-5. doi: 10.1242/jeb.047910.
Communication signals may be energetically expensive or inexpensive to produce, depending on the function of the signal and the competitive nature of the communication system. Males of sexually selected species may produce high-energy advertisement signals, both to enhance detectability and to signal their size and body condition. Accordingly, the proportion of the energy budget allocated to signal production ranges from almost nothing for many signals to somewhere in excess of 50% for acoustic signals in short-lived sexually selected species. Recent data from gymnotiform electric fish reveal mechanisms that regulate energy allocated to sexual advertisement signals through dynamical remodeling of the excitable membranes in the electric organ. Further, males of the short-lived sexually selected species, Brachyhypopomus gauderio, trade off among different metabolic compartments, allocating energy to signal production while reducing energy used in other metabolic functions. Female B. gauderio, by contrast, do not trade off energy between signaling and other functions. To fuel energetically expensive signal production, we expect a continuum of strategies to be adopted by animals of different life history strategies. Future studies should explore the relation between life history and energy allocation trade-offs.
通信信号的产生可能需要付出高昂或低廉的能量代价，具体取决于信号的功能和通信系统的竞争性质。有性选择物种的雄性可能会产生高能量的广告信号，既为了提高可检测性，又为了显示其体型和身体状况。因此，分配给信号产生的能量在许多信号中几乎为零，而在短寿命有性选择物种的声音信号中则超过 50%。来自电鳗科电鱼的最新数据揭示了通过电器官中可兴奋膜的动态重塑来调节分配给性广告信号的能量的机制。此外，短寿命有性选择物种 Brachyhypopomus gauderio 的雄性在不同代谢区室之间进行权衡，将能量分配给信号产生，同时减少其他代谢功能所使用的能量。相比之下，雌性 B. gauderio 不会在信号和其他功能之间进行能量交换。为了为高能量的信号产生提供燃料，我们预计不同生活史策略的动物会采用一系列策略。未来的研究应该探讨生活史与能量分配权衡之间的关系。
