Navigation Links
Zebra finch males prefer females with exaggerated maternal traits

Researchers have demonstrated that learning about the appearance of their parents may give birds a preference for mates with exaggerated parental traits, rather than traits that more exactly match those of their parents. Such learned mate preferences may help drive the evolution of exaggerated traits and strong morphological differences between sexes ?phenomena seen frequently in birds and other animals. The findings are reported by Carel ten Cate, Machteld Verzijden and Eric Etman of Leiden University, and appear in the June 6th issue of Current Biology.

In most bird species, young individuals take their parents as a model for what their later sexual partner should look like. This is the process of sexual imprinting, made famous by the Nobel prizewinner Konrad Lorenz. Nonetheless, most birds prefer mates in which specific traits are exaggerated compared with those of their parents. Because learning about a specific stimulus usually leads to a preference for this familiar stimulus over an unfamiliar one, it has generally been assumed that imprinting itself could not give rise to preferences for novel, exaggerated traits.

In their new work, the researchers tested the sexual preferences of zebra finch males that were raised by white parents differing in beak color. For one group of males, the researchers painted the beak color of the mother orange and that of the father red; for another group, the mother got a red beak and the father an orange one. When the males reached adulthood, they were tested with females with a spectrum of beak colors ranging from extreme orange to extreme red. Males in both groups preferred females with beaks that were more extremely colored than their mothers' beaks. This "peak shift" effect is known from other learning processes in which animals learn to distinguish different stimuli, but the presence of this effect in the imprinting process has not been demonstrated previously. The outcome of the study shows that the skewed
'"/>

Source:Cell Press


Page: 1 2

Related biology news :

1. Zebrafish may hold key to understanding human nerve cell development
2. Zebrafish may hold key to improved cancer research
3. Zebra finches remember songs dad sang
4. Darwins famous finches and Venters marine microbes
5. Mother birds increase progesterone to hatch females
6. Male elephants woo females with precise chemistry
7. New study explores beetle species with two forms of females
8. Male rivalry increases when females at most fertile, say researchers
9. Brain differences could explain why males and females experience pain relief differently
10. Insects that produce males from unfertilized eggs reveal a surprising cellular feat
11. UCLA study finds same genes act differently in males and females

Post Your Comments:
(Date:11/19/2009)... maize has identified thousands of diverse genes i... New techniques may allow breeders and researchers...le traits and create new varieties that were not e...19 issue of Science , the researchers, whose seni...d the first map of haplotypes sets of closely lin...
(Date:11/19/2009)...ompetitive NIH Director,s T-R01 Award , Speedier ... Dr. Samie Jaffrey, associate professor of pharmac...he first researchers to win a prestigious NIH Dire...Institutes of Health. Dr. Jaffrey and his colleagu...echnologies that may some day speed up lab testing...
(Date:11/19/2009)...willingly consume a highly endangered species, doi...nto box. New genetic detective work from the Sackl...can Museum of Natural History shows that bluefin t...ew York and Colorado. A quarter of what was labele... even escolar, a waxy, buttery fish often labeled ...
Breaking Biology News(10 mins):New map of variation in maize genetics holds promise for developing new varieties 2Weill Cornell science briefs: November 2009 2Weill Cornell science briefs: November 2009 3Weill Cornell science briefs: November 2009 4Weill Cornell science briefs: November 2009 5Unknowlingly consuming endangered tuna 2Unknowlingly consuming endangered tuna 3Loan Repayment Legislation Includes Physical Therapists as Frontline Providers 49280 1Loan Repayment Legislation Includes Physical Therapists as Frontline Providers 49280 2Gene findings revealing reasons for neuroblastoma risk 49275 1Gene findings revealing reasons for neuroblastoma risk 49275 2University of Houston diesel testing center teams with state transportation agency to cut emissions 8884 1University of Houston diesel testing center teams with state transportation agency to cut emissions 8884 2University of Houston diesel testing center teams with state transportation agency to cut emissions 8884 3
...e snowpack melts. But with the advent of global c...onducted on the regions wildflowers shows some pla...ouye (University of Maryland) used data gathered i...the problem. Writing in the journal Ecology, he d...s are far more susceptible to late frost damage wh...
... that could allow researchers to watch cells as th...tists have developed a method that extends the pow...crete pigments inside live cells of bacteria. , ...appens on a molecular level during photosynthesis.... about the inner workings of cells as they engage ...
...sh . , On March 3, Mongabay.com , a leading e...cal Conservation Science, an open-access, e-journa...onservation of tropical forests and other tropical... and publish original research papers and state-of...French, and Chinese. Four issues of the journal wi...
Other Biology News:Warmer springs mean less snow, fewer flowers in the Rockies 2Warmer springs mean less snow, fewer flowers in the Rockies 3Researchers visualize complex pigment mixtures in living cells 2Researchers visualize complex pigment mixtures in living cells 3Researchers visualize complex pigment mixtures in living cells 4Open-access tropical conservation journal launches 2Open-access tropical conservation journal launches 3Open-access tropical conservation journal launches 4
(Date:11/20/2009)..., , ROCKVILLE, Md., Nov. 20 /PRNewswire-F...announced that it has priced an underwritten publi... at a price to the public of $3.30 per share. The...deducting the underwriting discounts and commissio...cal trials of our VLP-based vaccines, internal res...
(Date:11/20/2009)... METTLER TOLEDO recently ... a free webinar, “The Role of Process Analyt... Engineering” on December 1, 2009. , ...ing the The Role of Process Analytical Technology...binar on December 1, Process Analytical Technolog...
(Date:11/19/2009)..., , BLAUVELT, N.Y., Nov. 19 ...eat germ extract, responds to a press release issu...the Hungarian company for making false and self-se...n BioSciences. ,, Dr. Hidvegi stated from his ...a claim that research on Avemar does not apply to ...
(Date:11/19/2009)..., , MALVERN, Pa. and WALTHAM, Mass., No...(AMR) and Decision Resources find that the leading...monia in Europe is broad-spectrum activity against... the variety of organisms that can cause nosocomia...hat they look primarily for agents that provide ap...
Breaking Biology Technology:Novavax Prices Public Offering of Common Stock 2Process Analytical Technology (PAT) in Green Chemistry and Green Engineering 2American BioSciences Rebuts Misleading Statements Made by Hungarian Competitor 2Broad-Spectrum Antibacterial Activity is the Most Important Driver of Antibiotic Selection for Nosocomial Pneumonia In Europe 2Broad-Spectrum Antibacterial Activity is the Most Important Driver of Antibiotic Selection for Nosocomial Pneumonia In Europe 3
...ou,ve followed this column, you know I have a penc...novation. I can,t imagine why CBS won,t return my ...nt" has such a ring to it. , ,What,s caught my inv...s about Acela, the fast train service along the Ea...acks have developed in the disc brakes and all the...
...t effective and proper networking techniques, you ...ents or when reaching out to other professionals. ...works for them, it may not work for others. , ,You...nality. At the same time, it never hurts to learn ...s who have been successful. , Learn From Speakers...
... Deer, Wis. Anil Gupte plans to refine the niche...s its broadband service. , ,He forsees a new wave ...reached a majority of U.S. homes mid-2004, accordi...per-capita market in Korea, Japan and Singapore. G...ilm distribution channels and dissolve some of the...
Other Biology Technology:When innovation gets off track 2When innovation gets off track 3Improve your networking skills by learning from other professionals 2Improve your networking skills by learning from other professionals 3Improve your networking skills by learning from other professionals 4Brown Deer start-up wants to serve up foreign film through broadband box 2Brown Deer start-up wants to serve up foreign film through broadband box 3Brown Deer start-up wants to serve up foreign film through broadband box 4
...all-inclusive collection of key procedures for use... developed by the leaders in Pichia expression are...s book will guide you from choosing the appropriat...nd analysis, to production of your protein of inte...
Goat IgG, Unconjugated from CHEMICON
Rabbit anti-USP33 AbVantage Pack Polyclonal Antibody, Unconjugated from Bethyl Laboratories
Anti-Rheumatoid Factor Monoclonal Antibody, Unconjugated from QED Bioscience Inc.
Biology Products: