2. Behavioral Biology TALKS - Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

�50 Jannis Liedtke A 702 / 15:15
When should cuckolded males care for extra-pair offspring?
Authors: Jannis Liedtke 1 , Lutz Fromhage 1
Affiliations: 1 University of Hamburg
In socially monogamous species with bi-parental care, males suffer reduced
reproductive success if their mate engages in extra-pair copulations (EPCs). One
might therefore expect that males should refuse to care for a brood if they can detect
that an EPC has occurred. Here, we use a game-theory model to study male brood
care in the face of EPCs in a cooperatively breeding species in which offspring help to
raise their (half-) siblings in their parents? next breeding attempt. We show that
under certain conditions males are selected to care even for broods completely
unrelated to themselves. This counterintuitive result arises through a form of
pseudo-reciprocity, whereby surviving extra-pair offspring, when helping to rear their
younger half-siblings, can more than compensate for the cost incurred by the male
that raised them. We argue that similar effects may not be limited to cooperative
breeders, but may arise in various contexts in which cooperation between (half-)
siblings occurs.
Chair: Thomas Hoffmeister
�51 Enrico König A 702 / 16:00
More than microbes: a new perspective about the evolution of antimicrobial
peptides in the defensive skin secretion of anuran amphibians
Authors: Enrico König 1 , Olaf R. P. Bininda-Emond 1 , Chris Shaw 1
Affiliation: 1 Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
Amphibians exhibit characteristic adaptations as a consequence of their ‘incomplete’
shift from the aquatic to terrestrial habitats. For example, cutaneous mucous glands
produce moist secretions to prevent potential desiccation, whereas the syncytial
granular glands have been adopted for the biosynthesis of a wide range of defensive
molecules. Here, we initially provide an overview of the chemical weaponry of Anura
(frogs and toads) present in their skin secretions. We place special emphasis on
peptides, which can be grouped into numerous families with homologues in
mammalian tissues (e.g. central and peripheral nervous system or gastrointestinal
tract) that act as hormones, neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. This overview
permits a new perspective into the evolution and function of anuran antimicrobial
peptides (AMPs), the most diverse frog skin peptide family. Traditionally, these
peptides are viewed as being part of the innate immune system, protecting the skin
against a broad range of microorganisms through a cytolytic mechanism due to their
cationic, amphipathic and ?-helical character. However, these peptides are
distributed sporadically (i.e., non-universally) across Anura with each species
presenting a unique, complex cocktail of host-defensive peptides that is largely
independent from its phylogenetic relationship to other species. Together with the
intriguing observation that all anuran species known to produce neuropeptides also
co-secrete cytolytic peptides in their granular glands, the traditional role for AMPs
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