IMBIV   05474
INSTITUTO MULTIDISCIPLINARIO DE BIOLOGIA VEGETAL
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Divergent cloacal gland photo-responsiveness in male Japanese quail exposed to short days and associated differences in social interactions and reproduction
Autor/es:
KEMBRO J. M.; BUSSO, J. M.; GUZMAN D. A.; DOMINCHIN, M. F.; MARIN R.H.
Revista:
POULTRY SCIENCE
Editorial:
POULTRY SCIENCE ASSOC INC
Referencias:
Año: 2017 vol. 96 p. 5 - 13
ISSN:
0032-5791
Resumen:
Quail under short days (SD) reduce their gonadal development, and consequently their cloacal gland (CG) size, aggressiveness, sexual behaviors, and reproductive performance. However, some quail appear nonresponsive to SD inhibition. When male quail were arbitrarily classified according to their CG involution during maximum photoinhibition (5 wk after SD exposure) as either nonresponsive (NR-SD) or responsive (R-SD), NR-SD quail showed intermediate CG volume between R-SD quail and the control quail kept on long days (C-LD). Herein, we evaluate whether NR-SD and R-SD male Japanese quail differ in their social interactions and reproductive performance while under SD; C-LD males were used as fully reproductive control. Firstly, we assessed over 4 consecutive days, brief (5-min) home cage encounters between individually housed C-LD, NR-SD or R-SD males and an unfamiliar C-LD male visitor. To determine male reproductive capacity, the following week, males received the visit (10-min) of a mature female over 3 consecutive days. C-LD, NR-SD and R-SD resident males showed higher aggressiveness than their photostimulated male visitors respectively in a 100, 64 and 0% of the studied cases and were also able to respectively fertilize a 100, 100 and 15% of their female visitors. Secondly, male-female encounters were again repeated 4 weeks later to further assess reproductive performance and behavior. Naive C-LD, NR-SD and R-SD males were also evaluated to assess potential consequences of the previous male-male interactions on the later performance. The number of males performing aggressive pecks towards females showed a C-LD>NR-SD>R-SD pattern. While mounts, CG contacts and reproductive capacity showed a C-LD=NR-SD>R-SD pattern, copulatory efficiency exhibited an NR-SD>C-LD=R-SD pattern. Sexual behaviors were not modulated by previous male-male brief social interactions. Findings suggest that NR-SD males are able to breed similarly to their C-LD counterparts which could be considered an indicator of a reduced reproductive dependence on seasonal photoperiod cues. Differences in the expression of aggressions between NR-SD and C-LD males may underlie the observed NR-SD improved copulatory efficiency when interacting with females.