Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Estación Biológica de Doñana - CSIC, 41092 Sevilla, Spain.
Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos - CSIC-UCLM-JCCM, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2016 Dec 15;6:39210. doi: 10.1038/srep39210.
Colours that underlie animal pigmentation can either be permanent or renewable in the short term. Here we describe the discovery of a conspicuous salmon-pink colouration in the base of bustard feathers and down that has never been reported because of its extraordinarily brief expression. HPLC analyses indicated that its constituent pigments are coproporphyrin III and protoporphyrin IX, which are prone to photodegradation. Accordingly, an experimental exposure of feathers of three bustard species to sunlight produced a rapid disappearance of the salmon-pink colouration, together with a marked decrease in reflectance around 670 nm coinciding with the absorption of porphyrin photoproducts. The disappearance of the salmon-pink colouration can occur in a period as short as 12 min, likely making it the most ephemeral colour phenotype in any extant bird. The presence of this colour trait in males performing sexual displays may thus indicate to females a high probability that the males were performing their first displays and would engage in their first copulations in the breeding season. In dominant males, sperm quality decreases over successive copulations, thus porphyrin-based colouration may evolve as a signal of virginity that allows females to maximize their fitness in lek mating systems.
动物色素沉着的底色既可以是永久性的，也可以在短期内可再生。在这里，我们描述了一种在鸨鸟的羽毛和绒毛基部发现的显眼的鲑鱼粉红色，由于其表达极为短暂，以前从未有报道过。HPLC 分析表明，其组成色素是粪卟啉 III 和原卟啉 IX，它们容易光降解。因此，对三种鸨鸟的羽毛进行的实验暴露于阳光下，导致鲑鱼粉红色迅速消失，同时在 670nm 左右的反射率显著下降，与卟啉光产物的吸收相吻合。鲑鱼粉红色的消失可能在短短 12 分钟内发生，这可能使它成为任何现存鸟类中最短暂的颜色表型。在进行性展示的雄性中存在这种颜色特征，可能向雌性表明雄性很有可能正在进行他们的第一次展示，并将在繁殖季节进行他们的第一次交配。在优势雄性中，精子质量随着连续的交配而下降，因此基于卟啉的颜色可能演化为贞操的信号，使雌性能够在求偶场交配系统中最大限度地提高其适应性。
