Role of cAMP signalling in winner and loser effects in crayfish agonistic encounters.

For territorial animals, establishment of status-dependent dominance order is essential to maintain social stability. In agonistic encounters of the crayfish Procambarus clarkii, a difference of body length of 3-7% is enough for larger animals to become dominant. Despite a physical disadvantage, small winners of the first pairings were more likely to win subsequent conflicts with larger inexperienced animals. In contrast, the losers of the first pairings rarely won subsequent conflicts with smaller naive animals. Such experiences of previous winning or losing affected agonistic outcomes for a long period. The winner effects lasted more than 2 weeks and the loser effect lasted about 10 days. Injection of 5HT1 receptor antagonist into the dominant animals 15-30 min after establishment of dominance order blocked the formation of the winner effects. In contrast, injection of adrenergic-like octopamine receptor antagonist into subordinate animals blocked the formation of the loser. 5HT1 receptors are negatively coupled to adenylyl cyclase and adrenergic-like octopamine receptors are positively coupled. Consistent with this, dominant animals failed to show the winner effect when injected with pCPT-cAMP, a cAMP analogue, and subordinate animals failed to show a loser effect when injected with adenylyl cyclase inhibitor SQ 22536. These results suggest that an increase and decrease of cAMP concentration is essential in mediating loser and winner effects, respectively. Furthermore, formation of the loser effect was blocked by injection of protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor H89, suggesting long-term memory of the loser effect is dependent on the cAMP-PKA signalling pathway.

Aminergic control of social status in crayfish agonistic encounters.

Using pairings of male crayfish Procambarus clarkii with a 3-7% difference in size, we confirmed that physically larger crayfish were more likely to win encounters (winning probability of over 80%). Despite a physical disadvantage, small winners of the first pairings were more likely to win their subsequent conflicts with larger naive animals (winning probability was about 70%). By contrast, the losers of the first pairings rarely won their subsequent conflicts with smaller naive animals (winning probability of 6%). These winner and loser effects were mimicked by injection of serotonin and octopamine. Serotonin-injected naive small crayfish were more likely to win in pairings with untreated larger naive crayfish (winning probability of over 60%), while octopamine-injected naive large animals were beaten by untreated smaller naive animals (winning probability of 20%). Furthermore, the winner effects of dominant crayfish were cancelled by the injection of mianserin, an antagonist of serotonin receptors and were reinforced by the injection of fluoxetin, serotonin reuptake inhibitor, just after the establishment of social order of the first pairings. Injection of octopamine channel blockers, phentolamine and epinastine, by contrast, cancelled the loser effects. These results strongly suggested that serotonin and octopamine were responsible for winner and loser effects, respectively.