SENSORY ECOLOGY

Courtship and mate choice, and consequently sexual selection, are highly dependent on what kind of signals (chemical, auditive, visual, tactile) animals can perceive. Being the sister group of all amniotes, amphibians had the same amount of time to evolve evolutionary novelties as mammals, reptiles and birds together, and therefore had ample opportunity to evolve multiple signaling strategies. Furthermore, amphibians evolved over a series of ancient and more recent convergent adaptive radiations into almost 7,500 extant species containing strikingly identical but unrelated ecomorphs, some of which originated more then ten times independently in amphibian evolution. We are using transcriptomic, proteomic, genomic and phylogenetic techniques in combination with behavioral assays to obtain an integrative view on the evolution of multimodal sexual communication in independent evolutionary lineages of amphibians.

Selected publications

Van Bocxlaer, I., Maex, M., Treer, D., Janssenswillen, S., Janssens, R., Vandebergh, W., Proost, P. & F. Bossuyt, 2016. - Beyond sodefrin: evidence for a multi-component pheromone system in the model newt Cynops pyrrhogaster (Salamandridae).

Scientific Reports, 6: 21880. - pdf

Maex, M., Van Bocxlaer, I., Mortier, A., Proost, P. & F. Bossuyt, 2016 - Courtship pheromone use in a model urodele, the Mexican Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum).

Scientific Reports, 6: 20184. - pdf

Janssenswillen, I., Willaert, B. Treer, D., Vandebergh, W., Bossuyt, F. & I. Van Bocxlaer, 2015 - High pheromone diversity in the male cheek gland of the red-spotted newt Nothophthalmus viridescens (Salamandridae).

BMC Evolutionary Biology, 15: 54.

Van Bocxlaer, I., Treer, D., Maex, M., Vandebergh, W., Janssenswillen, S., Stegen, G., Kok, P., Willaert, B., Matthijs, S., Martens, E., Mortier, A., de Greve, H., Proost, P. & F. Bossuyt, 2015 - Side-by-side secretion of late Palaeozoic diverged courtship pheromones in an aquatic salamander.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B London, 282: 20142960.

Janssenswillen, S., Vandebergh, W., Treer, D., Willaert, B., Maex, M., Van Bocxlaer, I. & F. Bossuyt, 2015 - Origin and diversification of the salamander SPF sex pheromone system.

Molecular Biology & Evolution 32 (2): 472-480.

Willaert, B., Bossuyt, F., Janssenswillen, S., Adriaens, D., Baggerman, G., Matthijs, S., Pauwels, E., Proost, P., Raepsaet, A., Schoofs, L., Stegen, G., Treer, D., Van Hoorebeke, L., Vandebergh, W. & I. Van Bocxlaer, 2013 - Frog nuptial pads secrete mating season-specific proteins related to salamander pheromones.

The Journal of Experimental Biology 216, 4139-4143 - pdf

About this research:

Treer, D., Van Bocxlaer, I., Matthijs, S., Du Four, D., Janssenswillen, S., Willaert, B. & F. Bossuyt, 2013 - Love Is Blind: Indiscriminate Female Mating Responses to Male Courtship Pheromones in Newts (Salamandridae).

PLoS ONE, 8(2): e56538.