Testosterone and corticosterone increase with latitude in reptiles and amphibians
-
1
Virginia Tech, Biological Sciences, United States
Latitudinal variation in life history characteristics has long been the focus of ecologists. One of the best examples has been latitudinal variation in clutch size with tropical vertebrates laying fewer eggs and having smaller litters than higher latitude species. More recently, physiologists have described latitudinal variation in a variety of processes that suggest tropical organisms exhibit a slower pace of life than their higher latitude counterparts. One prominent example has been the description of a positive relationship between testosterone and latitude in birds with tropical species typically having lower levels than higher latitude species. Similarly, a positive relationship between corticosterone and latitude has also been described in birds. However, it is unclear if these relationships are a direct result of factors associated with latitude or are rather associated with social factors such as mating system and degree of paternal care. It is also unclear if such latitudinal relationships exist in other groups of vertebrates. We investigated relationships between testosterone, corticosterone and latitude and altitude in both reptiles and amphibians. Reptiles, in particular, have much less variety in mating systems than birds, while amphibians are probably as diverse as birds, and thus these groups provide an opportunity to investigate if the relationships between environmental factors and hormones are direct or associated with related social factors. We found that both testosterone and corticosterone are positively related to latitude in both reptiles and amphibians. Further, we found a positive relationship between the two hormones. As similar relationships between the hormones and latitude exist in a variety of taxa, it suggests that environmental factors may be a stronger determinant of hormone levels than social factors.
Keywords:
Corticosterone,
Reproduction,
stress,
Testosterone
Conference:
ISAREN 2011: 7th International Symposium on Amphibian and Reptilian Endocrinology and Neurobiology, Ann Arbor, United States, 11 Jul - 13 Jul, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Invited Symposium
Topic:
Stress
Citation:
Moore
I,
Escallon
C,
Husak
J and
Eikenaar
C
(2011). Testosterone and corticosterone increase with latitude in reptiles and amphibians.
Front. Endocrinol.
Conference Abstract:
ISAREN 2011: 7th International Symposium on Amphibian and Reptilian Endocrinology and Neurobiology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fendo.2011.03.00033
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
29 Jul 2011;
Published Online:
09 Aug 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Ignacio Moore, Virginia Tech, Biological Sciences, Blacksburg, United States, itmoore@vt.edu