Individual experience as a key to success for the cuckoo catfish brood parasitism

0556585 - ÚBO 2023 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Zimmermann, Holger - Blažek, Radim - Polačik, Matej - Reichard, Martin
Individual experience as a key to success for the cuckoo catfish brood parasitism.
Nature Communications. Roč. 13, č. 1 (2022), č. článku 1723. E-ISSN 2041-1723
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA18-00682S
Institutional support: RVO:68081766
Keywords : alloparental care * arms races * evolution * behavior * rejection * responses * defense * hosts * mouthbrooding * cichlids * host-parasite relationship, * coevolution * imprinting * learning
OECD category: Biology (theoretical, mathematical, thermal, cryobiology, biological rhythm), Evolutionary biology
Impact factor: 16.6, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29417-y

Brood parasites are involved in coevolutionary arms races with their hosts, whereby adaptations of one partner elicit the rapid evolution of counter-adaptations in the other partner. Hosts can also mitigate fitness costs of brood parasitism by learning from individual or social experience. In brood parasites, however, the role of learning can be obscured by their stealthy behaviour. Cuckoo catfish (Synodontis multipunctatus) parasitise clutches of mouthbrooding cichlids in Lake Tanganyika and are the only non-avian obligate brood parasites among vertebrates. We experimentally demonstrate that cuckoo catfish greatly enhance their efficiency in parasitising their hosts as they learn to overcome host defences. With increasing experience, cuckoo catfish increased their parasitism success by greater efficiency through improved timing and coordination of intrusions of host spawnings. Hence, within the coevolutionary arms races, brood parasites learn to overcome host defences during their lifetime.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0330759


Research data: Figshare