Meeting Abstract
Animals can adjust mating strategies flexibly by integrating information about acute contexts. To understand constraints on animal decision making, we are characterizing mechanisms by which external sensory and internal physiological cues guide behaviors. We attempted to open the black box of mechanisms controlling behavioral flexibility by identifying neurons activated while male Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) rapidly decide between two mating tactics. We used a selective RNA-seq method to compare transcripts expressed in recently activated neurons in males exposed to reproductive and asocial contexts. Our results characterize transcripts that vary in expression when males decide between alternative mating tactics. Follow-up experiments will analyze region-specific expression to identify the neural substrates of reproductive decisions.
