González-Bernardo Enrique, Martínez-Padilla Jesús, Camacho Carlos, García Del Castillo Marta E, Potti Jaime, Canal David
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada, Fuente Nueva s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain.
University of Oviedo, San Francisco, 3, Oviedo, 33003 Asturias, Spain.
iScience. 2025 Apr 24;28(5):112512. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.112512. eCollection 2025 May 16.
Individuals experience changes in multiple traits across their lifespan, often peaking before senescence-driven declines. Many species display secondary sexual traits that can vary with age due to physiological and selective processes, influencing individual fitness and sexual selection. Using 13 years of longitudinal data from a pied flycatcher () population, we analyzed age-related variation in wing and forehead patches in both sexes. Wing patch size increased with age due to both within- and between-individual effects, with sex-specific patterns. Forehead patch size showed sex-dependent age effects: quadratic in females, linear in males, with only males exhibiting within-individual changes. In females, forehead patch occurrence followed a quadratic age pattern, influenced by selective (dis)appearance and reproductive timing. These results show that age-related ornament expression arises from different processes across traits and sexes, highlighting potential trade-offs between reproduction and ornamentation. This study underscores the role of both sexes' ornaments in selection and life-history strategies.
个体在其一生中会经历多种性状的变化，这些变化通常在衰老导致的衰退之前达到峰值。许多物种表现出次级性征，由于生理和选择过程，这些性征会随年龄而变化，影响个体的适应性和性选择。利用从斑姬鹟种群中获取的13年纵向数据，我们分析了两性翅膀和前额斑块与年龄相关的变化。由于个体内部和个体之间的影响，翅膀斑块大小随年龄增加，存在性别特异性模式。前额斑块大小表现出性别依赖性年龄效应：雌性为二次曲线，雄性为线性，只有雄性表现出个体内部的变化。在雌性中，前额斑块的出现遵循二次曲线年龄模式，受选择性（消失）和繁殖时间的影响。这些结果表明，与年龄相关的饰型表达源于不同性状和性别的不同过程，突出了繁殖和饰型之间潜在的权衡。这项研究强调了两性饰型在选择和生活史策略中的作用。
