Search results for "Sex specific"
showing 4 items of 24 documents
Sex-specific responses to cold in a very cold-tolerant, northern Drosophila species
2020
AbstractOrganisms can plastically alter resource allocation in response to changing environmental factors. For example, in harsh conditions organisms are expected to shift investment from reproduction towards survival, however, the factors and mechanisms that govern the magnitude of such shifts are relatively poorly studied. Here we compared the impact of cold on males and females of the highly cold-tolerant species Drosophila montana at the phenotypic and transcriptomic levels. Although both sexes showed similar changes in cold tolerance and gene expression in response to cold treatment, indicating that the majority of changes are concordant between the sexes, we identified a clear reducti…
Genetic sex determination and sex-specific lifespan in tetrapods – evidence of a toxic Y effect
2020
ABSTRACTSex-specific lifespans are ubiquitous across the tree of life and exhibit broad taxonomic patterns that remain a puzzle, such as males living longer than females in birds and vice versa in mammals. The prevailing “unguarded-X” hypothesis (UXh) explains this by differential expression of recessive mutations in the X/Z chromosome of the heterogametic sex (e.g., females in birds and males in mammals), but has only received indirect support to date. An alternative hypothesis is that the accumulation of deleterious mutations and repetitive elements on the Y/W chromosome might lower the survival of the heterogametic sex (“toxic Y” hypothesis). Here, we report lower survival of the heterog…
Sex-Specific Habitat Selection in an Edge Habitat Specialist, the Western Barbastelle Bat
2011
The niche variation hypothesis suggests that a population's ability to react to varying environmental conditions depend on the behavioural variability of its members. However, most studies on bats, including the work on the habitat use of the western barbastelle bat, Barbastella barbastellus, have not considered sex-specific and individual variability. We studied the habitat use of 12 female and five male western barbastelle bats within their home ranges with respect to available habitat types by applying kernel methods and Euclidean distances. Our results indicate individual habitat preferences within and among sexes of this species. Females preferred deciduous forest and linear elements w…
Androgen metabolism in the skin of the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
1993
Pieces of skin of male and female rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were incubated with testosterone and 11-ketotestosterone as substrates. In immature fish the conversion rate was low. In non-spawning adult males 11-ketotestosterone was reduced to 5α-11KDHT (up to 5.2%). In the fish in spawning condition the 5α-reduction rate was only about 1 to 2%. In the same specimens incubated with testosterone a high 11β-hydroxylase activity (23.8-25% in the male and 13% in the female skin) was found. Similar sex specific differences were observed for the occurence of 5α-reduced metabolites (about 20% in the male and 13% in the female tissue).