Meeting Abstract
Resource competition is a major driver of aggressive interactions among conspecifics, both at acute and evolutionary timescales. Aggressive interactions among siblings competing for resources is well documented; however, the mechanisms mediating juvenile aggression are poorly understood. In poison frogs, increased parental care is associated with decreased water volume of tadpole deposition sites resulting in increased resource competition and aggression. Indeed, the tadpoles of many poison frog species will attack, kill, and cannibalize other tadpoles. We examined the neural basis of conspecific aggression in Dendrobates tinctorius poison frog tadpoles by comparing patterns of generalized neural activity as well as specific candidate molecules across tadpoles that won aggressive interactions, lost aggressive interactions, or did not engage in a fight. We found that distinct patterns of neural activity predicted whether individuals won or lost aggressive encounters. Increased activity of vasotocin neurons (the non-mammalian homologue of the nonapeptide arginine vasopressin) was associated with increased aggression. We further tested this association by characterizing the effect of vasotocin level manipulation on fight outcome. Given widespread functional conservation of the neural mechanisms underlying social behavior, we suggest that mechanisms mediating aggression in poison frog tadpoles may contribute to juvenile aggression across vertebrates.
