A Parental Volatile Pheromone Triggers Offspring Begging in a Burying Beetle

Autor: Mamoru Takata, Yuki Mitaka, Sandra Steiger, Naoki Mori
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2019
Předmět:
Zdroj: iScience, Vol 19, Iss , Pp 1260-1278 (2019)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2589-0042
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2019.06.041
Popis: Summary: Parental care is a notable aspect of reproductive effort in many animals. The interaction between offspring begging and the parental feeding response is an important communication mechanism that regulates offspring food supply, and reducing the cost of superfluous begging is beneficial to both parents and offspring. Here we concluded that parents of the burying beetle Nicrophorus quadripunctatus inform their offspring of their preparation for provisioning by emitting “provisioning pheromone.” Female parents emitted an antimicrobial aromatic compound, 2-phenoxyethanol, in their regurgitation before provisioning, and this compound elicits begging behavior from their offspring. Furthermore, begging incurs growth and survival costs, and parents spent more than 85% of their time in close proximity to their offspring without provisioning. Therefore, it is suggested that limiting offspring begging during provisioning is beneficial to both parents and offspring. We report here a novel aspect of parent-offspring communication in family life. : Ecology; Biological Sciences; Ethology Subject Areas: Ecology, Biological Sciences, Ethology
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals