Condition-dependent signal reception: limitations and functions of carotenoids in avian color vision

条件依赖性信号接收：类胡萝卜素在鸟类色觉中的局限性和功能

• 批准号: 0923694
• 负责人: Kevin McGraw
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-15 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0923694&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Condition; dependent; signal; reception; limitations

Animals use a diversity of signals for communication (e.g. songs, colors), many of which are honest indicators of their worth as a mate or rival. However, the ways that animals perceive the world and receive transmitted signals may also be linked to their quality (e.g. health, condition), and such control of signal reception could impact the evolutionary pace and directions of animal communication systems. This research will involve investigations of the degree to which the color-visual sensory system of a songbird species (the house finch, Carpodacus mexicanus) is impacted by environmental factors, including diet, disease, and light exposure, and affects critical behavioral tasks like food selection and mate selection, both of which involves color preferences. Condition-dependence of color vision will be explored by tracking accumulation of the types and amounts of carotenoid pigments (e.g. the orange colorants of carrots) dedicated to the retina, where they are thought to filter light, protect the eye from photodamage, and tune color visual sensitivity. This approach provides a key molecular link between color vision and color production, which in house finches and many other animals occurs in the form of red, orange, and yellow carotenoid pigments whose supplies in feathers are also limited and condition-dependent. The biochemical, nutritional, and behavioral approaches taken in this research will enrich understandings of (a) the suite of benefits conferred by antioxidant nutrients in animals, (b) resource allocations and trade-offs in the context of animal communication, and (c) the coevolutionary mechanisms governing sexual traits and preferences in animals, tracked in a common chemical currency. The urban nature of the field research also affords the opportunity to involve local schoolteachers and children in data collection and science training, so that they may test first-hand the impacts of human encroachment on the communication system and viability of a desert-adapted organism.

动物使用多种信号进行交流（例如歌曲，颜色），其中许多是其伴侣或竞争对手的诚实指标。 但是，动物感知世界并接收传播信号的方式也可能与它们的质量（例如健康，状况）有关，并且对信号接收的控制可能会影响动物通信系统的进化速度和方向。 这项研究将涉及对鸣禽物种的色情感官系统（House finch，墨西哥）受到环境因素的影响，包括饮食，疾病和光暴露在内，并影响食物选择和伴侣选择等关键行为任务，这两者都涉及颜色偏好。 通过跟踪专用于视网膜的类胡萝卜素颜料的类型和量的积累（例如，胡萝卜的橙色着色剂），将探索彩色视觉的条件依赖性，在那里它们被认为可以过滤光，保护眼睛免受光损伤和调节色彩敏感性。 这种方法在彩色视觉和颜色产生之间提供了一个关键的分子联系，彩色和颜色产生中的雀科和许多其他动物以红色，橙色和黄色的类胡萝卜素色素的形式出现，其羽毛中的供应也有限且依赖于条件。这项研究中采用的生化，营养和行为方法将丰富对（a）动物中抗氧化营养素赋予的一系列益处，（b）在动物交流的背景下进行资源分配和权衡，以及（c）共同化学货币中的同步性特质和偏好的协调机制，以一种普通的化学货币进行了跟踪。 现场研究的城市性质还为让当地的学校老师和儿童参与数据收集和科学培训提供了机会，以便他们可以亲身测试人类侵占对通信系统的影响以及适应沙漠适应的生物体的可行性。