Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States of America.
Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States of America.
Horm Behav. 2020 Apr;120:104696. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104696. Epub 2020 Jan 31.
The occasional reversal of sex-typical behavior suggests that many of the neural circuits underlying behavior are conserved between males and females and can be activated in response to the appropriate social condition or stimulus. Most poison frog species (Family Dendrobatidae) exhibit male uniparental care, but flexible compensation has been observed in some species, where females will take over parental care duties when males disappear. We investigated hormonal and neural correlates of sex-typical and sex-reversed parental care in a typically male uniparental species, the Dyeing Poison Frog (Dendrobates tinctorius). We first characterized hormone levels and whole brain gene expression across parental care stages during sex-typical care. Surprisingly, hormonal changes and brain gene expression differences associated with active parental behavior in males were mirrored in their non-caregiving female partners. To further explore the disconnect between neuroendocrine patterns and behavior, we characterized hormone levels and neural activity patterns in females performing sex-reversed parental care. In contrast to hormone and gene expression patterns, we found that patterns of neural activity were linked to the active performance of parental behavior, with sex-reversed tadpole transporting females exhibiting neural activity patterns more similar to those of transporting males than non-caregiving females. We suggest that parallels in hormones and brain gene expression in active and observing parents are related to females' ability to flexibly take over parental care in the absence of their male partners.
偶尔出现的性别行为逆转表明，许多行为的神经回路在雄性和雌性之间是保守的，可以响应适当的社会条件或刺激而被激活。大多数毒蛙物种（树蛙科）表现出雄性单亲养育，但在一些物种中观察到了灵活的补偿，当雄性消失时，雌性会接管亲代养育职责。我们研究了性别典型和性别反转亲代养育的激素和神经相关性，这在一种典型的雄性单亲养育物种——染色毒蛙（Dendrobates tinctorius）中。我们首先描述了性别典型养育过程中不同亲代养育阶段的激素水平和全脑基因表达。令人惊讶的是，与雄性积极亲代行为相关的激素变化和大脑基因表达差异在其不参与养育的雌性伴侣中得到了反映。为了进一步探索神经内分泌模式与行为之间的脱节，我们描述了进行性别反转亲代养育的雌性的激素水平和神经活动模式。与激素和基因表达模式相反，我们发现神经活动模式与亲代行为的积极表现有关，进行性别反转的蝌蚪运输雌性表现出的神经活动模式与运输雄性的神经活动模式更相似，而不是不参与养育的雌性。我们认为，活跃和观察父母之间的激素和大脑基因表达相似性与雌性在没有雄性伴侣的情况下灵活接管亲代养育的能力有关。
