Identifying Endocrine Bases of Parental Neglect and Infanticide in the Mimic Poison Frog
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Parental care is often critical for infant-well being and species survival, yet the biological basis of such infant-directed behaviors remains unclear. There is increasing evidence that patterns in system-wide physiology, such as the signaling of circulating steroid hormones, may drive parental care decisions in a manner that is immediately responsive to environmental challenges. However, from an evolutionary perspective, there is remarkable variation in how hormones tune parental behaviors, especially when considering non-affiliative decisions such as infanticide. This study aims to characterize the environmental changes and endocrine activities that predict parental care, neglect, and aggression using a biparental, monogamous amphibian model known as the Mimic poison frog (Ranitomeya imitator). First, I performed a series of offspring manipulations, including cross-fostering and changing tadpoles’ locations in their parents’ tanks, which revealed that spatial familiarity is an indirect kin recognition mechanism in this species. Then, I designed a behavioral assay in which individual adults were displaced to a novel environment with conspecific eggs. I recorded and analyzed videos for infant-directed behaviors indicative of care, aggression, and neglect, wherein infant cannibalism was captured for the first time in this Genus. Steroid hormone titers (testosterone and corticosterone) were correlated with behavior. My analysis revealed that paired females, but not paired males, exhibit lower titers of testosterone when they perform infanticide rather than neglect, challenging the adage that testosterone is universally associated with increased aggression. This concerted analysis of hormonal changes and behavior lays a foundation for key endocrine mechanisms driving the plasticity of parental behavior in a tractable model, with downstream applications for comparative investigations in mammals.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date modified | May 4, 2023 |
| Publication date | May 4, 2023 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Lewis, Amaris |
|---|---|
| Data contributor | Goolsby, Billie |
| Thesis advisor | O'Connell, Lauren |
| Thesis advisor | Gordon, Deborah |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Biology |
| Advisor | Rodríguez, Camilo |
Subjects
| Subject | Parental behavior in animals |
|---|---|
| Subject | Infanticide |
| Subject | Cannibalism |
| Subject | Testosterone |
| Subject | Corticosterone |
| Subject | Kin recognition |
| Subject | Dendrobatidae |
| Subject | Steroid hormones |
| Subject | Biology |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
| Related item |
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|---|---|
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.25740/gb751jy3330 |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/gb751jy3330 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Lewis, A., Goolsby, B., and O'Connell, L. (2023). Identifying Endocrine Bases of Parental Neglect and Infanticide in the Mimic Poison Frog. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/gb751jy3330. https://doi.org/10.25740/gb751jy3330.
Collection
Undergraduate Theses, Department of Biology, 2022-2023
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- Contact
- alewis27@stanford.edu
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