A test of genetic association among male nuptial coloration, female mating preference, and male aggression bias within a polymorphic population of cichlid fish

Both inter- and intrasexual selection have been implicated in the origin and maintenance of species-rich taxa with diverse sexual traits. Simultaneous disruptive selection by female mate choice and male-male competition can, in theory, lead to speciation without geographical isolation if both act on the same male trait. Female mate choice can generate discontinuities in gene flow, while male-male competition can generate negative frequency-dependent selection stabilizing the male trait polymorphism. Speciation may be facilitated when mating preference and/or aggression bias are physically linked to the trait they operate on. We tested for genetic associations among female mating preference, male aggression bias and male coloration in the Lake Victoria cichlid Pundamilia. We crossed females from a phenotypically variable population with males from both extreme ends of the phenotype distribution in the same population (blue or red). Male offspring of a red sire were significantly redder than males of a blue sire, indicating that intra-population variation in male coloration is heritable. We tested mating preferences of female offspring and aggression biases of male offspring using binary choice tests. There was no evidence for associations at the family level between female mating preferences and coloration of sires, but dam identity had a significant effect on female mate preference. Sons of the red sire directed significantly more aggression to red than blue males, whereas sons of the blue sire did not show any bias. There was a positive correlation among individuals between male aggression bias and body coloration, possibly due to pleiotropy or physical linkage, which could facilitate the maintenance of color polymorphism.

Female preference for male color is necessary and sufficient for assortative mating in 2 cichlid sister species

A critical step for speciation in the face of gene flow is the origination of reproductive isolation. The evolution of assortative mating greatly facilitates this process. Assortative mating can be mediated by one or multiple cues across an array of sensory modalities. We here explore possible cues that may underlie female mate choice in a sympatric species pair of cichlid fish from Lake Victoria, Pundamilia pundamilia and Pundamilia nyererei. Previous studies identified species-specific female preferences for male coloration, but effects of other cues could not be ruled out. Therefore, we assessed female choice in a series of experiments in which we manipulated visual (color) and chemical cues. We show that the visibility of differences in nuptial hue (i.e., either blue or red) between males of the 2 species is necessary and sufficient for assortative mating by female mate choice. Such assortment mediated by a single cue may evolve relatively quickly, but could make reproductive isolation vulnerable to environmental changes. These findings confirm the important role of female mate choice for male nuptial hue in promoting the explosive speciation of African haplochromine cichlids.

The additive and interactive roles of aggression, prosocial behavior, and social preference in predicting resource control in young children

Distinguishing between physical and social aggression, this study examined whether the predictive effect of aggression on resource control a) is moderated by prosocial behavior and b) corresponds to a linear or a curvilinear trend. Moderating effects of children’s social preference among peers and child sex in this context were also tested. Based on a sample of 682 kindergarten children (348 girls; average age 72.7 months, 3.6 SD), multilevel regressions revealed additive linear effects of social preference and prosociality on resource control. Moderate (but not high) levels of social aggression also facilitated resource control for disliked children. There was no such threshold effect for well liked children, who increasingly controlled the resource the more socially aggressive they were. In contrast, physical aggression hampered resource control unless used very modestly. The present study has a number of positive features. First, the distinction between physical and social aggression improves our understanding of the relation between aggression and social competence and sketches a more differentiated picture of the role of different forms of aggression in resource control. Second, this study combines the concept of resource control with the concept of social preference and investigates curvilinear effects of aggression. Third, the direct observation of resource control in the Movie Viewer increases the internal validity of this study.

Mutations in the cofilin partner Aip1/Wdr1 cause autoinflammatory disease and macrothrombocytopenia.

A pivotal mediator of actin dynamics is the protein cofilin, which promotes filament severing and depolymerization, facilitating the breakdown of existing filaments, and the enhancement of filament growth from newly created barbed ends. It does so in concert with actin interacting protein 1 (Aip1), which serves to accelerate cofilin's activity. While progress has been made in understanding its biochemical functions, the physiologic processes the cofilin/Aip1 complex regulates, particularly in higher organisms, are yet to be determined. We have generated an allelic series for WD40 repeat protein 1 (Wdr1), the mammalian homolog of Aip1, and report that reductions in Wdr1 function produce a dramatic phenotype gradient. While severe loss of function at the Wdr1 locus causes embryonic lethality, macrothrombocytopenia and autoinflammatory disease develop in mice carrying hypomorphic alleles. Macrothrombocytopenia is the result of megakaryocyte maturation defects, which lead to a failure of normal platelet shedding. Autoinflammatory disease, which is bone marrow-derived yet nonlymphoid in origin, is characterized by a massive infiltration of neutrophils into inflammatory lesions. Cytoskeletal responses are impaired in Wdr1 mutant neutrophils. These studies establish an essential requirement for Wdr1 in megakaryocytes and neutrophils, indicating that cofilin-mediated actin dynamics are critically important to the development and function of both cell types.

Phosphorylation of the proline-rich domain of Xp95 modulates Xp95 interaction with partner proteins.

The mammalian adaptor protein Alix [ALG-2 (apoptosis-linked-gene-2 product)-interacting protein X] belongs to a conserved family of proteins that have in common an N-terminal Bro1 domain and a C-terminal PRD (proline-rich domain), both of which mediate partner protein interactions. Following our previous finding that Xp95, the Xenopus orthologue of Alix, undergoes a phosphorylation-dependent gel mobility shift during progesteroneinduced oocyte meiotic maturation, we explored potential regulation of Xp95/Alix by protein phosphorylation in hormone-induced cell cycle re-entry or M-phase induction. By MALDI-TOF (matrix-assisted laser-desorption ionization-time-of-flight) MS analyses and gel mobility-shift assays, Xp95 is phosphorylated at multiple sites within the N-terminal half of the PRD during Xenopus oocyte maturation, and a similar region in Alix is phosphorylated in mitotically arrested but not serum-stimulated mammalian cells. By tandem MS, Thr745 within this region, which localizes in a conserved binding site to the adaptor protein SETA [SH3 (Src homology 3) domain-containing, expressed in tumorigenic astrocytes] CIN85 (a-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamate)/SH3KBP1 (SH3-domain kinase-binding protein 1), is one of the phosphorylation sites in Xp95. Results from GST (glutathione S-transferase)-pull down and peptide binding/competition assays further demonstrate that the Thr745 phosphorylation inhibits Xp95 interaction with the second SH3 domain of SETA. However, immunoprecipitates of Xp95 from extracts of M-phase-arrested mature oocytes contained additional partner proteins as compared with immunoprecipitates from extracts of G2-arrested immature oocytes. The deubiquitinase AMSH (associated molecule with the SH3 domain of signal transducing adaptor molecule) specifically interacts with phosphorylated Xp95 in M-phase cell lysates. These findings establish that Xp95/Alix is phosphorylated within the PRD during M-phase induction, and indicate that the phosphorylation may both positively and negatively modulate their interaction with partner proteins.

Phosphorylation of the proline-rich domain of Xp95 modulates Xp95 interaction with partner proteins.

The mammalian adaptor protein Alix [ALG-2 (apoptosis-linked-gene-2 product)-interacting protein X] belongs to a conserved family of proteins that have in common an N-terminal Bro1 domain and a C-terminal PRD (proline-rich domain), both of which mediate partner protein interactions. Following our previous finding that Xp95, the Xenopus orthologue of Alix, undergoes a phosphorylation-dependent gel mobility shift during progesteroneinduced oocyte meiotic maturation, we explored potential regulation of Xp95/Alix by protein phosphorylation in hormone-induced cell cycle re-entry or M-phase induction. By MALDI-TOF (matrix-assisted laser-desorption ionization-time-of-flight) MS analyses and gel mobility-shift assays, Xp95 is phosphorylated at multiple sites within the N-terminal half of the PRD during Xenopus oocyte maturation, and a similar region in Alix is phosphorylated in mitotically arrested but not serum-stimulated mammalian cells. By tandem MS, Thr745 within this region, which localizes in a conserved binding site to the adaptor protein SETA [SH3 (Src homology 3) domain-containing, expressed in tumorigenic astrocytes] CIN85 (a-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamate)/SH3KBP1 (SH3-domain kinase-binding protein 1), is one of the phosphorylation sites in Xp95. Results from GST (glutathione S-transferase)-pull down and peptide binding/competition assays further demonstrate that the Thr745 phosphorylation inhibits Xp95 interaction with the second SH3 domain of SETA. However, immunoprecipitates of Xp95 from extracts of M-phase-arrested mature oocytes contained additional partner proteins as compared with immunoprecipitates from extracts of G2-arrested immature oocytes. The deubiquitinase AMSH (associated molecule with the SH3 domain of signal transducing adaptor molecule) specifically interacts with phosphorylated Xp95 in M-phase cell lysates. These findings establish that Xp95/Alix is phosphorylated within the PRD during M-phase induction, and indicate that the phosphorylation may both positively and negatively modulate their interaction with partner proteins.

Inheritance of female mating preference in a sympatric sibling species pair of Lake Victoria cichlids: implications for speciation

Female mate choice has often been proposed to play an important role in cases of rapid speciation, in particular in the explosively evolved haplochromine cichlid species flocks of the Great Lakes of East Africa. Little, if anything, is known in cichlid radiations about the heritability of female mating preferences. Entirely sympatric distribution, large ecological overlap and conspicuous differences in male nuptial coloration, and female preferences for these, make the sister species Pundamilia pundamilia and P. nyererei from Lake Victoria an ideally suited species pair to test assumptions on the genetics of mating preferences made in models of sympatric speciation. Female mate choice is necessary and sufficient to maintain reproductive isolation between these species, and it is perhaps not unlikely therefore, that female mate choice has been important during speciation. A prerequisite for this, which had remained untested in African cichlid fish, is that variation in female mating preferences is heritable. We investigated mating preferences of females of these sister species and their hybrids to test this assumption of most sympatric speciation models, and to further test the assumption of some models of sympatric speciation by sexual selection that female preference is a single-gene trait. We find that the differences in female mating preferences between the sister species are heritable, possibly with quite high heritabilities, and that few but probably more than one genetic loci contribute to this behavioural speciation trait with no apparent dominance. We discuss these results in the light of speciation models and the debate about the explosive radiation of cichlid fishes in Lake Victoria.

Higher emotional distress in female partners of cancer patients: prevalence and patient-partner interdependencies in a 3-year cohort

OBJECTIVE: Assessment and treatment of psychological distress in cancer patients was recognized as a major challenge. The role of spouses, caregivers, and significant others became of salient importance not only because of their supportive functions but also in respect to their own burden. The purpose of this study was to assess the amount of distress in a mixed sample of cancer patients and their partners and to explore the dyadic interdependence. METHODS: An initial sample of 154 dyads was recruited, and distress questionnaires (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Symptom Checklist 9-Item Short Version and 12-Item Short Form Health Survey) were assessed over four time points. Linear mixed models and actor-partner interdependence models were applied. RESULTS: A significant proportion of patients and their partners (up to 40%) reported high levels of anxiety, depression, psychological distress, and low quality of life over the course of the investigation. Mixed model analyses revealed that higher risks for clinical relevant anxiety and depression in couples exist for female patients and especially for female partners. Although psychological strain decreased over time, the risk for elevated distress in female partners remained. Modeling patient-partner interdependence over time stratified by patients' gender revealed specific effects: a moderate correlation between distress in patients and partners, and a transmission of distress from male patients to their female partners. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide empirical support for gender-specific transmission of distress in dyads coping with cancer. This should be considered as an important starting point for planning systemic psycho-oncological interventions and conceptualizing further research.

Vulnerability and Growth. Developmental dynamics and differential effects of the loss of an intimate partner in the second half of life. IP 12: Study outline and first results

This working report gives an overview of the Individual Project 12 “Vulnerability and growth. Developmental dynamics and differential effects of the loss of an intimate partner in the second half of life” of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES led by Pasqualina Perrig-Chiello, University of Bern. This longitudinal and interdisciplinary project aims at examining vulnerability and personal growth after a critical life event, namely the break-up of a long-term intimate relationship in the second half of life, be it due to divorce or due to bereavement. In this report we present details about the rationale, the main research questions, the hypotheses and the methods of the study. Special attention is given to the methodological approach. The authors give a first sample description and report on the validity of the data by comparing the sample with Swiss Labour Force Survey and Swiss Health Survey data.

Das offene Selbstgespräch in Dyaden: Dessen Zusammenhang mit Selbstdarstellungstendenzen und Einfluss auf den Partner

Ausgangslage und Fragestellung In der Forschung zum Selbstgespräch im Sport dominiert die Frage nach dessen Auswir-kungen auf die sprechende Person selber. Gemäss Diaz (1992) besitzt das offene Selbstgespräch aber neben der individuell-regulatorischen auch eine sozial-kommunikative Funktion. Diese sozial-kommunikative Funktion und der damit verbunde-ne Einfluss des Selbstgesprächs auf Beobachter wurden in der Sportwissenschaft bisher nur marginal untersucht (z.B. Gould & Weiss, 1981; Van Raalte, Brewer, Cornelius & Pe-titpas, 2006). Im angestrebten Forschungsvorhaben sollen zwei Fragen geklärt werden: Steht das of-fene, während dem Wettkampf geäusserte Selbstgespräch eines Athleten in Zusammen-hang mit dessen Selbstdarstellung? Beeinflusst das offene Selbstgespräch eines Athle-ten den Dyadenpartner und wie sie sich gegenseitig wahrnehmen? Methode Es werden Doppelpartien im Badminton per Videokamera aufgezeichnet. Mittels einer Korrelationsanalyse soll überprüft werden, ob die so erhobenen Selbstgesprächsaussa-gen mit dem Persönlichkeitsmerkmal „Selbstdarstellung“ der Probanden zusammenhän-gen. Nach Spielschluss werden die Probanden entsprechend eines video-stimulierten Fremdkonfrontationsinterviews mit Spielausschnitten konfrontiert, die offenes Selbstge-spräch ihres Dyadenpartners enthalten. Sie werden dabei nach ihren Kognitionen sowie Emotionen gefragt, die sie während der entsprechenden Spielsituation erlebten. Aktuelle Fragen Welcher Fragebogen zur Erhebung des Persönlichkeitsmerkmals „Selbstdarstellung“ soll Verwendung finden? Zur Auswahl steht ein noch zu übersetzender, validierter, engli-scher und sportspezifischer Fragebogen und die Verwendung eines deutschen Frage-bogens, der habituelle Selbstdarstellungstechniken im Allgemeinen erhebt. Wie soll beim video-stimulierten Fremdkonfrontationsinterview vorgegangen werden? Werden den Probanden z.B. das ganze Spiel oder nur ausgewählte Ausschnitte gezeigt, in denen offenes Selbstgespräch vorkommt? Wie zeitnah muss das Interview durchge-führt werden? Literatur Diaz, R. M. (1992). Methodological Concerns in the Study of Private Speech. In R. M. Diaz & L. E. Berk (Eds.), Private speech. From social interaction to self-regulation (pp. 55-81). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Gould, D. & Weiss, M. (1981). The effects of model similarity and model talk on self-efficacy and muscular endurance. Journal of Sport Psychology, 3, 17-29. Van Raalte, J. L., Brewer, B. W., Cornelius, A. E. & Petitpas, A. J. (2006). Self-presentational effects of self-talk on perceptions of tennis players. Hellenic Journal of Psychology, 3, 134-149.

Is Preference for Ovulatory Female's Faces Associated with Men's Testosterone Levels?

Women’s ovulation is perceivable with different senses. Already subtle face shape differences are enough to trigger men’s preference for the ovulatory female. The aim of the present study is to investigate if men’s testosterone level can be linked to their preference for the ovulatory female. Thirty-nine heterosexual participants were shown face pairs of which one of them was transformed to the shape of a prototype face of a woman in her luteal cycle phase and the other was transformed to the shape of a prototype face of an ovulatory woman. Participants were asked to choose the face which they perceived as being more attractive (attractiveness task), or the woman with whom they would have better chances to get a date (dating task). In both tasks, the ovulatory female was chosen more often. Testosterone was not predictive for the chosen face; regardless of testosterone level men preferred the ovulatory woman. However testosterone predicted how confident the men were with their choice. Men with lower testosterone levels were more confident with their choice than men with higher testosterone levels.

Hand preference patterns in expert basketball players: Interrelations between basketball-specific and everyday life behavior

In the present study we examined the interrelation of everyday life handedness and hand preference in basketball, as an area of expertise that requires individuals being proficient with both their nondominant and dominant hand. A secondary aim was to elucidate the link between basketball-specific practice, hand preference in basketball and everyday life handedness. Therefore, 176 expert basketball players self-reported their hand preference for activities of daily living and for basketball-specific behavior as well as details about their basketball-specific history via questionnaire. We found that compared to the general population the one-hand bias was significantly reduced for both everyday life and basketball-specific hand preference (i.e., a higher prevalence of mixed-handed individuals), and that both concepts were significantly related. Moreover, only preference scores for lay-up and dribbling skills were significantly related to measures of basketball-specific practice. Consequently, training-induced modulations of lateral preference seem to be very specific to only a few basketball-specific skills, and do not generalize to other skills within the domain of basketball nor do they extend into everyday life handedness. The results are discussed in terms of their relevance regarding theories of handedness and their practical implications for the sport of basketball.