Tomkins Patrick, Saaristo Minna, Allinson Mayumi, Wong Bob B M
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria, Australia; Department of Biosciences, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland.
Aquat Toxicol. 2016 Jan;170:365-370. doi: 10.1016/j.aquatox.2015.09.019. Epub 2015 Oct 9.
Despite the pivotal role sexual selection plays in population dynamics and broader evolutionary processes, the impact of chemical pollution on female mate choice is poorly understood. One group of chemical contaminants with the potential to disrupt the mechanisms of female mate choice is endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs); a broad class of environmental pollutants that can interfere with the endocrinology of organisms at extremely low concentrations. Recent research has revealed that estrogenic EDCs can affect female mate choice in fish, but the impact of androgenic EDC exposure is yet to be studied. To address this, we investigated the effects of an environmentally relevant concentration of trenbolone - an androgenic steroid used as a growth promoter in the cattle industry - on female mate choice in wild-caught guppies (Poecilia reticulata). We exposed male and female guppies to 17β-trenbolone for 21 days (measured concentration 4ng/L) via a flow-through system, and found that trenbolone-exposed female guppies spent less time associating with males, and were less choosy, compared to unexposed females. In contrast, trenbolone had no impact on male reproductive behavior or morphology. This is the first study to show that androgenic EDC exposure can disrupt female mate choice, highlighting the need for studies to investigate the behavioral impacts of environmental contaminants on both sexes.
尽管性选择在种群动态和更广泛的进化过程中起着关键作用，但化学污染对雌性配偶选择的影响却鲜为人知。一类有可能扰乱雌性配偶选择机制的化学污染物是内分泌干扰化学物质（EDCs）；这是一类广泛的环境污染物，即使在极低浓度下也能干扰生物体的内分泌系统。最近的研究表明，具有雌激素活性的EDCs会影响鱼类的雌性配偶选择，但雄激素活性的EDCs暴露的影响尚未得到研究。为了解决这个问题，我们研究了环境相关浓度的群勃龙（一种在养牛业中用作生长促进剂的雄激素类固醇）对野生孔雀鱼（孔雀花鳉）雌性配偶选择的影响。我们通过流通系统让雄性和雌性孔雀鱼接触群勃龙21天（测量浓度为4纳克/升），发现与未接触群勃龙的雌性相比，接触群勃龙的雌性孔雀鱼与雄性相处的时间更少，而且选择更不挑剔。相比之下，群勃龙对雄性的生殖行为或形态没有影响。这是第一项表明雄激素活性的EDCs暴露会扰乱雌性配偶选择的研究，凸显了开展研究以调查环境污染物对两性行为影响的必要性。
