García-Roa Roberto, Megía-Palma Rodrigo, Ortega Jesús, Jara Manuel, López Pilar, Martín José
Department of Evolutionary Ecology, National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC), Madrid, Spain.
Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology of Adaptations, School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, United Kingdom.
PeerJ. 2017 Dec 5;5:e3992. doi: 10.7717/peerj.3992. eCollection 2017.
Communicative traits are strikingly diverse and may vary among populations of the same species. Within a population, these traits may also display seasonal variation. Chemical signals play a key role in the communication of many taxa. However, we still know far too little about chemical communication in some vertebrate groups. In lizards, only a few studies have examined interpopulational variation in the composition of chemical cues and signals and only one study has explored the seasonal effects. Here we sampled three subspecies of the Tenerife lizards () and analyze the lipophilic fraction of their femoral gland secretions to characterize the potential interpopulational variation in the chemical signals. In addition, we assessed whether composition of these secretions differed between the reproductive and the non-reproductive season. We analyzed variations in both the overall chemical profile and the abundance of the two main compounds (cholesterol and vitamin E). Our results show interpopulational and seasonal differences in chemical profiles. These findings are in accordance with the high interpopulational variability of compounds observed in lizard chemical signals and show that their composition is not only shaped by selective factors linked to reproductive season.
交流特征极为多样，且可能在同一物种的不同种群间存在差异。在一个种群内部，这些特征也可能呈现季节性变化。化学信号在许多生物类群的交流中起着关键作用。然而，我们对某些脊椎动物类群的化学通讯仍然知之甚少。在蜥蜴中，仅有少数研究考察了化学线索和信号组成的种群间差异，且仅有一项研究探讨了季节性影响。在此，我们对特内里费岛蜥蜴的三个亚种进行采样，并分析其股腺分泌物的亲脂部分，以表征化学信号中潜在的种群间差异。此外，我们评估了这些分泌物的组成在繁殖季节和非繁殖季节是否有所不同。我们分析了整体化学特征以及两种主要化合物（胆固醇和维生素E）含量的变化。我们的结果显示了化学特征的种群间和季节性差异。这些发现与在蜥蜴化学信号中观察到的化合物的高度种群间变异性相符，并表明其组成不仅受与繁殖季节相关的选择因素影响。
