Plasticity associated with adoption of social roles in clown anemonefish
- 1Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, United States
- 2Marine Eco-Evo-Devo Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Onna, Japan
- 3Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, United States
Abstract
Central questions of animal behavior are how individual phenotypes shape and how individual phenotypes are shaped by dominance hierarchies. Using clownfish (Amphiprion percula) as a model system, we investigated how individuals strategically modify their phenotype during hierarchy formation. We tested the overarching hypothesis that interactions among size- and age-matched rivals will lead to the emergence of social roles (dominant, subordinate, solitary), accompanied by divergence in four aspects of individual phenotypes: growth, feeding behavior, agonistic behaviors (aggression, submission), and gene expression. To test this, we created 30 replicates of juvenile clownfish, each comprising a size-matched pair housed together, and a solitary size-matched individual housed separately. Our results show that an individual’s social context shapes its growth trajectory through coordinated changes in feeding behavior, agonistic behaviors, and gene expression. Individuals emerging as dominant within pairs grew twice as much compared to those emerging as subordinates, while subordinate and solitary individuals showed comparable growth. Initially, paired individuals consumed more food per capita than solitary individuals, but this difference declined as size hierarchies became established. Agonistic behaviors also decreased over time among paired individuals as size differences emerged. Transcriptomic analyses revealed upregulation of conserved vertebrate growth pathways and ossification-related genes, and downregulation of satiety-associated genes, in dominant individuals compared to subordinates and solitaries. Here, we identify associations between changes in gene expression, growth, and feeding behavior regulation that reinforce social role differentiation during dominance hierarchy formation in clownfish. Our findings lay the foundation for a broader framework to explore the mechanisms underpinning strategic growth in social vertebrates.
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BibTeX
@article{vizer2026plasticity,
title = {{Plasticity associated with adoption of social roles in clown anemonefish}},
author = {Lili F Vizer and Douglas Alvarado and Colleen Bove and Marcela Herrera and Annabel Hughes and Kian Thompson and Steven M Bogdanowicz and Vincent Laudet and Sarah W Davies and Pete Buston},
journal = {eLife},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.7554/elife.109871},
url = {https://elifesciences.org/articles/109871},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Plasticity associated with adoption of social roles in clown anemonefish
AU - Lili F Vizer
AU - Douglas Alvarado
AU - Colleen Bove
AU - Marcela Herrera
AU - Annabel Hughes
AU - Kian Thompson
AU - Steven M Bogdanowicz
AU - Vincent Laudet
AU - Sarah W Davies
AU - Pete Buston
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/28
JO - eLife
DO - 10.7554/elife.109871
UR - https://elifesciences.org/articles/109871
AB - Central questions of animal behavior are how individual phenotypes shape and how individual phenotypes are shaped by dominance hierarchies. Using clownfish (Amphiprion percula) as a model system, we investigated how individuals strategically modify their phenotype during hierarchy formation. We tested the overarching hypothesis that interactions among size- and age-matched rivals will lead to the emergence of social roles (dominant, subordinate, solitary), accompanied by divergence in four aspects of individual phenotypes: growth, feeding behavior, agonistic behaviors (aggression, submission), and gene expression. To test this, we created 30 replicates of juvenile clownfish, each comprising a size-matched pair housed together, and a solitary size-matched individual housed separately. Our results show that an individual’s social context shapes its growth trajectory through coordinated changes in feeding behavior, agonistic behaviors, and gene expression. Individuals emerging as dominant within pairs grew twice as much compared to those emerging as subordinates, while subordinate and solitary individuals showed comparable growth. Initially, paired individuals consumed more food per capita than solitary individuals, but this difference declined as size hierarchies became established. Agonistic behaviors also decreased over time among paired individuals as size differences emerged. Transcriptomic analyses revealed upregulation of conserved vertebrate growth pathways and ossification-related genes, and downregulation of satiety-associated genes, in dominant individuals compared to subordinates and solitaries. Here, we identify associations between changes in gene expression, growth, and feeding behavior regulation that reinforce social role differentiation during dominance hierarchy formation in clownfish. Our findings lay the foundation for a broader framework to explore the mechanisms underpinning strategic growth in social vertebrates.
SN - 2050-084X
ER -