Key Laboratory of East China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation, Ministry of Agriculture, East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Shanghai, 200090, China.
Key Laboratory of East China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation, Ministry of Agriculture, East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Shanghai, 200090, China.
Behav Processes. 2021 Aug;189:104419. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104419. Epub 2021 May 12.
Recognition of mates from others is crucial for monogamous species to maintain their long-term pair bonds. The seahorse is widely recognized as a monogamous species, and its mate recognition cue is still not well understood. In the present study, we used the lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus) as an experimental animal and investigated the effect of blocking olfactory, visual or behavioral (i.e., greeting) cues on mate recognition. Our results show that as long as the female seahorse can smell her mate, she will remain faithful to her mate and persistently select her mate as her next mating partner, regardless of whether the visual and/or behavioral cues between her and her mate are blocked. This finding implies that olfaction is a critical cue for a female seahorse to recognize her mate.
从其他个体识别配偶对于维持一夫一妻制物种的长期伴侣关系至关重要。海马被广泛认为是一种一夫一妻制物种，但对其配偶识别线索仍了解甚少。在本研究中，我们以线纹海马（Hippocampus erectus）为实验动物，研究了阻断嗅觉、视觉或行为（即问候）线索对配偶识别的影响。我们的结果表明，只要雌性海马能够闻到其配偶的气味，她就会对其配偶保持忠诚，并坚持选择其配偶作为下一个交配伙伴，而不论其与配偶之间的视觉和/或行为线索是否被阻断。这一发现表明，嗅觉是雌性海马识别配偶的关键线索。
