Ontogenetic variation of heritability and maternal effects in yellow-bellied marmot alarm calls
Ontogenetic variation of heritability and maternal effects in yellow-bellied marmot alarm calls
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2013.0176
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发表时间：
2013-05-07
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Martin, Julien G. A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Blumstein, Daniel T.;Nguyen, Kathy T.;Martin, Julien G. A.
许多物种的个体发出独特的声音，可能传递有关信号者的潜在信息。据报道，一些物种的警报呼叫具有个体特异性，这种独特性可能使个体能够获得呼叫者的可靠性或亲缘关系。虽然人们对哺乳动物发声的遗传能力知之甚少，但如果警报叫声是个体独特的，可以进行亲属关系评估，那么呼叫结构应该是可遗传的。在这里，我们首次明确地表明报警呼叫结构是可遗传的。我们研究了黄腹土拨鼠（Marmota flavventris），并对它们的报警叫声进行了9次定量测量。有了已知的家谱，我们使用动物模型（一种统计技术）来估计警报呼叫的遗传性。在幼鱼中，只有一个测量变量的遗传力与零显著不同；然而，大多数变量具有显著的母体环境影响。相比之下，雏鸟和成年鸟对母体环境没有显著影响，但几乎所有测量变量的遗传力都显著不同于零。有些，但不是所有的这些遗传效应在不同的年龄层有显著的不同。幼鸟存在显著的非零母环境效应，反映了母环境应激对鸣叫结构的影响。无论这种机制如何，母亲的环境影响可能会使青少年产生亲属关系识别。在老年动物中，警报呼叫结构的大量遗传基础表明，呼叫可以用来评估亲属关系，矛盾的是，也可能表明呼叫结构中有学习的作用。
Individuals of many species produce distinctive vocalizations that may relay potential information about the signaller. The alarm calls of some species have been reported to be individually specific, and this distinctiveness may allow individuals to access the reliability or kinship of callers. While not much is known generally about the heritability of mammalian vocalizations, if alarm calls were individually distinctive to permit kinship assessment, then call structure should be heritable. Here, we show conclusively for the first time that alarm call structure is heritable. We studied yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) and made nine quantitative measurements of their alarm calls. With a known genealogy, we used the animal model (a statistical technique) to estimate alarm call heritability. In juveniles, only one of the measured variables had heritability significantly different from zero; however, most variables had significant maternal environmental effects. By contrast, yearlings and adults had no significant maternal environmental effects, but the heritability of nearly all measured variables was significantly different from zero. Some, but not all of these heritable effects were significantly different across age classes. The presence of significantly non-zero maternal environmental effects in juveniles could reflect the impact of maternal environmental stresses on call structure. Regardless of this mechanism, maternal environmental effects could permit kinship recognition in juveniles. In older animals, the substantial genetic basis of alarm call structure suggests that calls could be used to assess kinship and, paradoxically, might also suggest a role of learning in call structure.