ArticleEvolution; international journal of organic evolution2015
Low-quality birds do not display high-quality signals: The cysteine-pheomelanin mechanism of honesty.
Article in Evolution; international journal of organic evolution, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-analysis challenges a textbook example of status signalling and demonstrates publication bias.eLife · 2018Pooled it
- Scalp Cooling as a Biopsychosocial Intervention in Patients Receiving Highly Alopecia-Inducing Chemotherapy: Prospective Single-Arm Study.JMIR cancer · 2026Article
- Article
- Oxidative physiology is weakly associated with pigmentation in birds.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Phenotypic selection on an ornamental trait is not modulated by breeding density in a pied flycatcher population.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2022Article
- Melanin-based ornament darkness positively correlates with across-season nutritional condition.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Article
- Eumelanin levels in rufous feathers explain plasma testosterone levels and survival in swallows.Ecology and evolution · 2019Article
- Condition-dependence of pheomelanin-based coloration in nuthatches Sitta europaea suggests a detoxifying function: implications for the evolution of juvenile plumage patterns.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Bird Integumentary Melanins: Biosynthesis, Forms, Function and Evolution.International journal of molecular sciences · 2016Review
- Dispersive Raman spectroscopy allows the identification and quantification of melanin types.Ecology and evolution · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The mechanisms that make that the costs of producing high-quality signals are unaffordable to low-quality signalers are a current issue in animal communication. The size of the melanin-based bib of male house sparrows Passer domesticus honestly signals quality. We induced the development of new bibs while treating males with buthionine-sulfoximine (BSO), a substance that depletes the levels of the antioxidant glutathione (GSH) and the amino acid cysteine, two elements that switch melanogenesis from eumelanin to pheomelanin. Final bib size is negatively related to pheomelanin levels in the bib feathers. BSO reduced cysteine and GSH levels in all birds, but improved phenotypes (bibs larger than controls) were only expressed by high-quality birds (BSO birds with largest bibs initially). Negative associations between final bib size and cysteine levels in erythrocytes, and between pheomelanin and cysteine levels, were observed in high-quality birds only. These findings suggest that a mechanism uncoupling pheomelanin and cysteine levels may have evolved in low-quality birds to avoid producing bibs of size not corresponding to their quality and greater relative costs. Indeed, greater oxidative stress in cells was not observed in low-quality birds. This may represent the first mechanism maintaining signal honesty without producing greater relative costs on low-quality signalers.
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