Zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) songs include syllables of a fundamental frequency and harmonics. Individual harmonics in 1 syllable can be more or less emphasized. The functional role of this variability is unknown. These experiments provide evidence of how the phenomenon is perceived. We trained 12 male and female zebra finches on a go-no-go operant procedure to discriminate between 2 song ...

When females mate promiscuously, female sperm storage provides scope to bias the fertilization success towards particular males via the non-random acceptance and utilization of sperm. The difficulties observing post-copulatory processes within the female reproductive tract mean that the mechanisms underlying cryptic female choice remain poorly understood. Here, we use zebra finches Taeniopygia ...

Gene expression can be modulated by epigenetic modifications, which may lead to a rapid adaptation environmental stress. After stress cessation, changes in gene could reversed, would allow organisms maintain their phenotype under transient environments, but this mechanism is poorly understood. Social downregulates directly involved pheomelanin synthesis (Slc7a11) changing DNA m5C levels, avoidi...

Passeriformes are the largest order of birds and one of the most widely studied groups in evolutionary biology and ecology. Until recently genomic tools in passerines relied on chicken genomic resources. Here we report the construction and analysis of a whole-genome linkage map for the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) using a 354-bird pedigree. The map contains 876 SNPs dispersed across 45 lin...

Immune defense involves inflammatory reactions in which immune cells produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) to fight pathogens. ROS may however cause damage to the host if they are not balanced by antioxidant defenses. Therefore, one should expect individuals undergoing an immune reaction to use antioxidants to prevent oxidative stress. Antioxidants are vital compounds that provide important pro...

Maternal effects provide a mechanism to adapt offspring phenotype and optimize the mother's fitness to current environmental conditions. Transferring steroids to the yolk is one way mothers can translate environmental information into potential adaptive signals for offspring. However, maternally-derived hormones might also have adverse effects for offspring. For example, recent data in zebra fi...