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Structure of distress call: implication for specificity and activation of dopaminergic system

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Abstract

We conducted a set of playback experiments aimed at understanding whether distress-call structure in the greater short-nosed fruit bat Cynopterus sphinx is specific in encoding information relating to stress that attracts conspecifics. We tested the specificity by playing their distress call and its modified version at a foraging site for free-ranging bats, as well as under captive conditions involving either a small group or individuals. In a separate playback experiment, bats showed a significantly greater response when the natural call as opposed to a modified call was played back to captive as well as free-ranging bats at the foraging site. Under captive conditions, bats showed less of a response to the playback of distress calls when in a group than when alone. We subsequently found that tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and its transcription factor—nuclear receptor related factor 1 (Nurr-1); and the dopamine transporter (DAT) and its receptor (D1DR) were elevated significantly in the amygdala of bats both emitting and responding to a distress call, but not in the case of bats responding to the modified call. These results suggest that distress-call structure encodes information on the state of stress that is capable of being conveyed to conspecifics.

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Abbreviations

5-HT 5:

Hydroxytryptamine (Serotonin)

ACTH:

Adrenocorticotropic hormone

CORT:

Corticosterone

D1DR:

Dopamine receptor

DA:

Dopamine

DAT:

Dopamine transporter

GR:

Glucocorticoid receptor

HPA:

Hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis

IEG:

Early growth response gene

NE:

Norepinephrine

Nurr-1:

Nuclear receptor related factor-1

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative real-time PCR

SRC-1:

Steroid receptor cofactor-1

TH:

Tyrosine hydroxylase

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Brock Fenton, Dr. Paul A. Racey and another anonymous reviewer for their suggestions that improved this manuscript. We also thank Przemek Chylarecki for his help with the R software. This research was supported by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (Grant no. 37/(1426)/10/EMR-II/2010), Government of India, through major project awarded to KER and INSA Senior Scientist awarded to GM. The Department of Animal Science is supported by UGC-SAP-DRS-II. Experimental protocols used in this study were approved by Institutional Animal Ethical Committee (03/AS/BUWAEC/2008) of Bharathidasan University and complied with the laws of India. Experiments were designed to minimize the number of animals used.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Science, School of Life Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, 620024, India

    Subramanian Mariappan & Koilmani Emmanuvel Rajan

  2. Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wilcza 64, 00-679, Warsaw, Poland

    Wieslaw Bogdanowicz

  3. Department of Zoology, The American College, Madurai, 625 002, India

    Hanumanthan Raghuram

  4. Department of Animal Behavior and Physiology, School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, 625021, India

    Ganapathy Marimuthu

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  1. Subramanian Mariappan
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  2. Wieslaw Bogdanowicz
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  3. Hanumanthan Raghuram
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  4. Ganapathy Marimuthu
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  5. Koilmani Emmanuvel Rajan
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Correspondence to Koilmani Emmanuvel Rajan.

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Mariappan, S., Bogdanowicz, W., Raghuram, H. et al. Structure of distress call: implication for specificity and activation of dopaminergic system. J Comp Physiol A 202, 55–65 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-015-1053-0

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