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Side-specific effect of yolk testosterone elevation on second-to-fourth digit ratio in a wild passerine

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Abstract

Second-to-fourth digit ratio is a widely investigated sexually dimorphic morphological trait in human studies and could reliably indicate the prenatal steroid environment. Conducting manipulative experiments to test this hypothesis comes up against ethical limits in humans. However, oviparous tetrapods may be excellent models to experimentally investigate the effects of prenatal steroids on offspring second-to-fourth digit ratio. In this field study, we injected collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis) eggs with physiological doses of testosterone. Fledglings from eggs with elevated yolk testosterone, regardless of their sex, had longer second digits on their left feet than controls, while the fourth digit did not differ between groups. Therefore, second-to-fourth digit ratio was higher in the testosterone-injected group, but only on the left foot. This is the first study which shows experimentally that early testosterone exposure can affect second-to-fourth digit ratio in a wild population of a passerine bird.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to members of the Behavioural Ecology Group for their help during fieldwork. The study was conducted under licences from the Middle Danube Valley Inspectorate for Environmental Protection, Nature Conservation and Water Management (permission no. 2573/2/2004). This study was supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA, grant nos. T049650 and K75618), the Eötvös Loránd University, the Hungarian State PhD Scholarship to G.N., the Erdők a Közjóért Alapítvány and the Pilis Park Forestry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. sétány 1/C, H-1117, Budapest, Hungary

    Gergely Nagy, György Blázi, Gergely Hegyi & János Török

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  1. Gergely Nagy
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  2. György Blázi
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  3. Gergely Hegyi
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  4. János Török
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Correspondence to János Török.

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Communicated by: Alexandre Roulin

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Nagy, G., Blázi, G., Hegyi, G. et al. Side-specific effect of yolk testosterone elevation on second-to-fourth digit ratio in a wild passerine. Sci Nat 103, 4 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-015-1328-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-015-1328-x

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