Using 3D printed eggs to examine the egg-rejection behaviour of wild birds.
Using 3D printed eggs to examine the egg-rejection behaviour of wild birds.
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作者：
Igic B;Nunez V;Voss HU;Croston R;Aidala Z;López AV;Van Tatenhove A;Holford ME;Shawkey MD;Hauber ME
亲卵寄生虫和它们的宿主之间的共同进化关系通常通过使用人造卵来检查宿主物种的卵排斥行为来研究。然而，用橡皮泥、塑料、木材或巴黎石膏生产人造蛋的传统方法是费力的、不精确的，并且容易出现人为错误。作为替代方案，3D打印可以减少人为错误，能够更精确地操纵鸡蛋的大小和形状，并提供比传统方法更准确和可复制的协议来生成人工刺激。然而，3D打印技术在卵子排斥研究中的有用性仍有待检验。在这里，我们将3D打印技术应用于广泛研究的美国知更鸟（Turdus migratorius）的卵子排斥行为。知更鸟的卵寄生虫，褐头燕八哥，Molothrus ater，在大小和形状上有很大的差异，但它是未知的宿主卵排斥决定是否在这个梯度的自然变化不同。我们打印了包含燕八哥蛋的自然形状和大小范围的人造蛋，将它们涂成类似于知更鸟或燕八哥蛋的颜色，并用它们来人工寄生繁殖野生知更鸟的巢穴。与以前的研究，我们表明，知更鸟接受mixingcolored和拒绝非mixingcolored人造蛋。虽然我们没有发现证据表明寄生卵大小或形状的细微差异会影响知更鸟的拒绝决定，但3D打印将为更广泛的实验提供机会，以研究外来卵的大小和形状变化在拒绝决定中的潜在生物学或进化意义。我们提供了使用个人3D打印机或商业打印服务生成3D打印鸡蛋的详细协议，并强调了该技术在鸡蛋排斥研究中的其他潜在未来应用。
The coevolutionary relationships between brood parasites and their hosts are often studied by examining the egg rejection behaviour of host species using artificial eggs. However, the traditional methods for producing artificial eggs out of plasticine, plastic, wood, or plaster-of-Paris are laborious, imprecise, and prone to human error. As an alternative, 3D printing may reduce human error, enable more precise manipulation of egg size and shape, and provide a more accurate and replicable protocol for generating artificial stimuli than traditional methods. However, the usefulness of 3D printing technology for egg rejection research remains to be tested. Here, we applied 3D printing technology to the extensively studied egg rejection behaviour of American robins, Turdus migratorius. Eggs of the robin’s brood parasites, brown-headed cowbirds, Molothrus ater, vary greatly in size and shape, but it is unknown whether host egg rejection decisions differ across this gradient of natural variation. We printed artificial eggs that encompass the natural range of shapes and sizes of cowbird eggs, painted them to resemble either robin or cowbird egg colour, and used them to artificially parasitize nests of breeding wild robins. In line with previous studies, we show that robins accept mimetically coloured and reject non-mimetically coloured artificial eggs. Although we found no evidence that subtle differences in parasitic egg size or shape affect robins’ rejection decisions, 3D printing will provide an opportunity for more extensive experimentation on the potential biological or evolutionary significance of size and shape variation of foreign eggs in rejection decisions. We provide a detailed protocol for generating 3D printed eggs using either personal 3D printers or commercial printing services, and highlight additional potential future applications for this technology in the study of egg rejection.
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影响因子：
2.3
作者：
Callander, Sophia;Kahn, Andrew T.;Backwell, Patricia R. Y.
通讯作者：
Backwell, Patricia R. Y.
影响因子：
2.3
作者：
Antonov, A;Stokke, BG;Roskaft, E
通讯作者：
Roskaft, E
影响因子：
2.8
作者：
Aleixo, A
通讯作者：
Aleixo, A
影响因子：
2
作者：
Heinze, G;Schemper, M
通讯作者：
Schemper, M
影响因子：
1.9
作者：
Mendelson, Tamra C.
通讯作者：
Mendelson, Tamra C.