ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2012
Subordinate male cichlids retain reproductive competence during social suppression.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Male alternative reproductive tactics and sperm competition: a meta-analysis.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2022Pooled it
- Behavioural and neural correlates of social hierarchy formation in a sex-changing fish.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- Molecular identification of an androgen receptor and the influence of long-term aggressive interaction on hypothalamic genes expression in black rockfish (Sebastes schlegelii).Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2021Article
- Genome-wide effects of social status on DNA methylation in the brain of a cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni.BMC genomics · 2019Article
- The effects of male social environment on sperm phenotype and genome integrity.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2019Article
- Advancing behavioural genomics by considering timescale.Nature communications · 2018Review
- Chemical diplomacy in male tilapia: urinary signal increases sex hormone and decreases aggression.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Polygenic sex determination in the cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni.BMC genomics · 2016Article
- Social Transitions Cause Rapid Behavioral and Neuroendocrine Changes.Integrative and comparative biology · 2015Review
- Social odors conveying dominance and reproductive information induce rapid physiological and neuromolecular changes in a cichlid fish.BMC genomics · 2015Article
- Male Investments in High Quality Sperm Improve Fertilization Success, but May Have Negative Impact on Offspring Fitness in Whitefish.PloS one · 2015Article
- Social status differences regulate the serotonergic system of a cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni.The Journal of experimental biology · 2014Article
- Genomics: moving behavioural ecology beyond the phenotypic gambit.Animal behaviour · 2014Article
- Social regulation of male reproductive plasticity in an African cichlid fish.Integrative and comparative biology · 2013Review
- Social descent with territory loss causes rapid behavioral, endocrine and transcriptional changes in the brain.The Journal of experimental biology · 2013Article
- Expression and sequence evolution of aromatase cyp19a1 and other sexual development genes in East African cichlid fishes.Molecular biology and evolution · 2013Article
- Social opportunity causes rapid transcriptional changes in the social behaviour network of the brain in an African cichlid fish.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2013Article
- Social information changes the brain.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2012Review
- Characterization of cell proliferation throughout the brain of the African cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni and its regulation by social status.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2012Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Subordinate males, which are excluded from reproduction often save energy by reducing their investment in sperm production. However, if their position in a dominance hierarchy changes suddenly they should also rapidly attain fertilization capability. Here, we asked how social suppression and ascension to dominance influences sperm quality, spermatogenesis and reproductive competence in the cichlid Astatotilapia burtoni, where reproduction is tightly coupled to social status. Dominant territorial (T) males are reproductively active while subordinate non-territorial (NT) males are suppressed, but given the opportunity, NT males will perform dominance behaviours within minutes and attain T male testes size within days. Using the thymidine analogue 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) to label germ cell proliferation, we found that the spermatogenic cycle takes approximately 11-12 days, and social status had no effect on proliferation, suggesting that spermatogenesis continues during reproductive suppression. Although sperm velocity did not differ among social states, NT males had reduced sperm motility. Remarkably, males ascending in status showed sperm motility equivalent to T males within 24 h. Males also successfully reproduced within hours of social opportunity, despite four to five weeks of suppression and reduced testis size. Our data suggest that NT males maintain reproductive potential during suppression possibly as a strategy to rapidly improve reproductive fitness upon social opportunity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.