Androgen-glucocorticoid Mediation of Behavioral Variation

了解行为和形态变异的生理基础是生物学的一个主要目标。 然而，个体之间的许多变化的连续性往往使这种研究变得困难。 这项研究将使用翻车鱼利用两种不同类型的男性的存在：一个“典型的”父母的男性类型和戴绿帽子的男性，表现出马赛克的男性和女性的典型字符。 两种类型的男性之间的形态差异密切相关的分歧，在生殖行为和两种类型的男性生殖能力。 本计画将开始系统的生化与行为研究，探讨雄激素与糖皮质激素在雄性行为与形态变异表现中的角色，以及它们之间的互动。 这些激素在脊椎动物中被认为是生殖行为的重要介质，并在从各种环境刺激中转导信息方面发挥核心作用。 这些研究将检验这样一种假设，即两种类型的雄性之间的行为差异与类固醇激素作用的两个重要组成部分的差异有关。 这些研究将确定1）参与雄激素和糖皮质激素代谢的主要酶的活性，2）记录该酶和相关酶的组织特异性活性的变体和性别差异，3）记录脑和其他组织中雄激素和糖皮质激素受体以及这两种类固醇生成酶的表达，以及4）确定变体对标准化应激源的敏感性是否不同。 由于许多神经内分泌机制的行为是保守的，从太阳鱼的拟议研究结果应广泛适用于整个脊椎动物。 该项目将为学生提供研究培训，该研究计划将神经内分泌研究与该领域的动物行为研究相结合，以了解行为背后的生理机制的演变。

Understanding the physiological bases of behavioral and morphological variation is a major goal in biology. However, the continuous nature of much of the variation among individuals often makes such study difficult. This research will use sunfish to exploit the existence of two distinct types of males: a "typical" parental male type and a cuckolder male that exhibits a mosaic of male- and female-typical characters. Morphological differences between the two types of males are tightly correlated with divergence in reproductive behavior and both types of males are reproductively competent. This project will begin a systematic biochemical and behavioral examination of the role of androgens and glucocorticoids, and their interactions, in the expression of male behavioral and morphological variation. These hormones are known across vertebrates to be important mediators of reproductive behavior and to play a central role in transducing information from various environmental stimuli. These studies will test hypotheses that differences in behavior between the two types of males are related to differences in two important components of steroid hormone action. The studies will determine 1) the activity of a major enzyme involved in androgen and glucocorticoid metabolism, 2) document morph and sex differences in tissue-specific activity of this and a related enzyme, 3) document in the brain and other tissues the expression of androgen and glucocorticoid receptors and these two steroidogenic enzymes, and 4) determine whether morphs differ in their sensitivity to a standardized stressor. Because many neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying behavior are conserved, the findings from the proposed studies of sunfish should be broadly applicable across vertebrates. The project will provide research training for students in a research program that integrates neuroendocrine studies with studies of behavior of animals in the field to understand the evolution of physiological mechanisms underlying behavior.