title: Structure of distress call: implication for specificity and activation of dopaminergic system.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, School of Life Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, 620024, India.
authors.forename: Subramanian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mariappan
authors.affiliation: Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wilcza 64, 00-679, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Wieslaw
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bogdanowicz
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The American College, Madurai, 625 002, India.
authors.forename: Hanumanthan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Raghuram
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Behavior and Physiology, School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, 625021, India.
authors.forename: Ganapathy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Marimuthu
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, School of Life Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, 620024, India. emmanuvel1972@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Koilmani Emmanuvel
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Rajan
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000679:Amygdala / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000502:physiology*; D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D057126:Nuclear Receptor Subfamily 4, Group A, Member 2 / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017447:Receptors, Dopamine D1 / Q000378:metabolism; D012919:Social Behavior; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014446:Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase / Q000378:metabolism; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; D057126:Nuclear Receptor Subfamily 4, Group A, Member 2; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D017447:Receptors, Dopamine D1; D014446:Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase
keywords: Chiroptera; Cynopterus sphinx; Distress calls; Dopamine; Playback