IBBEA   24401
INSTITUTO DE BIODIVERSIDAD Y BIOLOGIA EXPERIMENTAL Y APLICADA
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Fighting cichlids: studying aggression as a key element to understand neuroendocrine regulation
Autor/es:
MATÍAS PANDOLFI; LEONEL MORANDINI; GUSTAVO SOMOZA; SCAIA MARÍA FLORENCIA; ALEJANDRO NOGUERA
Reunión:
Congreso; Behaviour 2017; 2017
Resumen:
Aggression in vertebrates is one of the areas of growing interest among social behaviors and mechanisms involved in its regulation include physiological, genetic and social factors. This behavior has been well studied in males competing for resources, but female aggression is still understudied. Androgen regulation is one of the most studied physiological mechanisms in male aggression, but there is growing evidence regarding the importance of aromatization in brain and suggesting a possible role of estradiol. Cichlasoma dimerus is a cichlid fish with hierarchical social systems in which both male and female dominants defend their status by aggressive displays, and brain aromatase has been recently characterized and measured in this species. The aim of this study is to describe male and female aggression in dyadic agonistic encounters as a first step to analyze the role of central androgens and estrogens regulating this behavior. Winning index was defined as the sum of aggressive minus submissive displays, and both indexes in each contest were compared. While in males 15% of contests resulted in draw, in females all encounters resulted in clear winner/loser status (n=7, p=0.0022 for males; n=9, p=