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Isotocin neuronal phenotypes differ among social systems in cichlid fishes

Reddon, AR, O'Connor, CM, Nesjan, E, Cameron, J, Hellmann, JK, Ligocki, IY, Marsh-Rollo, SE, Hamilton, IM, Wylie, DR, Hurd, PL and Balshine, S (2017) Isotocin neuronal phenotypes differ among social systems in cichlid fishes. Royal Society Open Science, 4 (5). ISSN 2054-5703

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Abstract

Social living has evolved numerous times across a diverse array of animal taxa. An open question is how the transition to a social lifestyle has shaped, and been shaped by, the underlying neurohormonal machinery of social behaviour. The nonapeptide neurohormones, implicated in the regulation of social behaviours, are prime candidates for the neuroendocrine substrates of social evolution. Here, we examined the brains of eight cichlid fish species with divergent social systems, comparing the number and size of preoptic neurons that express the nonapeptides isotocin and vasotocin. While controlling for the influence of phylogeny and body size, we found that the highly social cooperatively breeding species (n = 4) had fewer parvocellular isotocin neurons than the less social independently breeding species (n = 4), suggesting that the evolutionary transition to group living and cooperative breeding was associated with a reduction in the number of these neurons. In a complementary analysis, we found that the size and number of isotocin neurons significantly differentiated the cooperatively breeding from the independently breeding species. Our results suggest that isotocin is related to sociality in cichlids and may provide a mechanistic substrate for the evolution of sociality.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Science & Technology; Multidisciplinary Sciences; Science & Technology - Other Topics; nonapeptide; oxytocin; vasopressin; vasotocin; sociality; cooperative breeding; ALTERNATIVE REPRODUCTIVE TACTICS; ARGININE-VASOTOCIN; LAKE TANGANYIKA; PHYLOGENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS; COOPERATIVE BEHAVIOR; AGGRESSIVE-BEHAVIOR; MICROTINE RODENTS; LIFE-HISTORY; EVOLUTION; OXYTOCIN
Subjects: Q Science > QL Zoology
Divisions: Natural Sciences & Psychology (closed 31 Aug 19)
Publisher: The Royal Society
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Date Deposited: 25 Sep 2018 08:33
Last Modified: 04 Sep 2021 02:26
DOI or ID number: 10.1098/rsos.170350
URI: https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/9313
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