AUTHOR=Frey Anna R. , Bucciarelli Gary M. , Hu Daniel D. , Kats Lee B. , Green David B. TITLE=An amphibian toxin phenotype is sexually dimorphic and shows seasonal concordant change between sexes JOURNAL=Frontiers in Amphibian and Reptile Science VOLUME=1 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/amphibian-and-reptile-science/articles/10.3389/famrs.2023.1279848 DOI=10.3389/famrs.2023.1279848 ISSN=2813-6780 ABSTRACT=
Sexually dimorphic phenotypes are consequential to animal survival, and this is especially apparent with defense phenotypes. Amphibians have poison glands, and several lineages maintain a neurotoxin, tetrodotoxin (TTX), which is largely considered a derived chemical defense trait. However, production pathways are unclear, and, as such, whether males and females differentially produce or appropriate toxin concentrations is not known. We evaluated the relationship between TTX concentrations, sex, and morphology by collecting trait data from more than 850 wild newts of the genus