So it is a good thing that eLife, which operates a particularly labour-intensive system of peer review and aims high for interest and importance, will from today be offering authors of rejected papers the option of taking the referees’ reports with them to other journals, including BMC Biology, Open Biology, and all journals published by PLoS and EMBO.

Of course it will be the authors’ choice whether they take ...

Read more]]> Selective journals, in particular journals that select on grounds of interest or importance, inevitably disappoint many authors of papers that ought to be published. Aspiring authors authors may submit their papers to three or four or even more journals in succession before acceptance, consuming referees and losing time with each submission.

So it is a good thing that eLife, which operates a particularly labour-intensive system of peer review and aims high for interest and importance, will from today be offering authors of rejected papers the option of taking the referees’ reports with them to other journals, including BMC Biology, Open Biology, and all journals published by PLoS and EMBO.

Of course it will be the authors’ choice whether they take up the option, and eLife’s referees will have to agree to having their names released to the other journals (I shall be surprised if they don’t, generally); but it is in principle obviously desirable as a way of saving the time of authors and limited resources of competent referees.

BMC Biology has for the past three years been operating a policy with both these aims. We instigated re-review opt-out to allow authors to choose whether papers are seen again by referees after revision; and we have operated a largely informal policy of considering papers that have been rejected by other journals on the basis of the (anonymous) referees’ reports from those journals, subject to advice from a BMC Biology Editorial Board member. Of course it is much easier to base decisions on other journals’ referees if you know who they are (and therefore where exactly their expertise lies).

How smooth a passage is transfer from eLife likely to be? Authors offered the transfer option will be warned that the recipient journal may seek further advice, and it’s impossible to say how often this is likely to happen. BMC Biology will generally avoid it as far as possible, in favour of checking the existing reports with an appropriate Editorial Board member.

Clear technical flaws are of course likely to preclude publication in any of eLife’s transfer partners: what the portable peer review system allows is the operation of different editorial judgements of what is interesting or important without serial assessements of technical validity.

On the importance of a paper there is an element of informed guessing in most decisions made by journals; Marc Kirschner argued persuasively at the peer review panel discussion we recently held in Boston that the importance of a paper can often be judged reliably only long after its publication (citing restriction enzymes, which are the most egregious example). Interest is still more prone to fashion and the prejudices (inevitable, with the best will in the world) of referees or editors.

Even the criterion of technical soundness can arguably be operated too stringently. One of the most important early papers on how virus-infected cells are recognized by the immune system was wrong in a significant technical detail; and the data in Harold Weintraub’s paper launching the idea of master-regulators in gene expression programs clearly failed to support its conclusions. (Master-regulators of gene expression remain an arguable concept, but the paper unquestionably drove major advances in the understanding of gene regulation.) Besides, some fields are inherently messier than others, and progress may depend on some latitude in the rigor demanded of the evidence contributing to a developing understanding of a complex system. This is likely to be true especially in new fields.

So while some journals may insist that a striking observation be extended to an investigation of its mechanism, or an interesting interpretation be backed by irreproachable evidence, others may see the publication of striking observations or reasonable interpretations as a legitimate and sometimes important part of the scientific process.

It is surely an advantage not to have every paper undergo a fresh round of technical scrutiny each time it is considered by a fresh editorial eye.

Can Alzheimer’s disease memory problems be studied in a mouse model? A study published today in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy attempts to answer this question by performing a comprehensive characterization of age-related behavioral changes in an important mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.

A variety of behavioral tasks that measure motor performance, anxiety-like behavior, and cognitive ability were determined through the lifespan of the mice, ranging from young (7 month old), middle age (11 and 15 months old), and old (24 months old) mice. There were no impairments in motor function or anxiety-like behavior in the mice at any age tested. However, the mice developed Alzheimer-like memory problems as ...

Read more]]> Guest blog post by Dr Scott Webster, University of Kentucky, USA

Can Alzheimer’s disease memory problems be studied in a mouse model? A study published today in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy attempts to answer this question by performing a comprehensive characterization of age-related behavioral changes in an important mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.

A variety of behavioral tasks that measure motor performance, anxiety-like behavior, and cognitive ability were determined through the lifespan of the mice, ranging from young (7 month old), middle age (11 and 15 months old), and old (24 months old) mice. There were no impairments in motor function or anxiety-like behavior in the mice at any age tested. However, the mice developed Alzheimer-like memory problems as they aged.

This study is important because it is the first study to provide such an in depth characterization of this Alzheimer’s mouse model, and will be useful to other researchers who want to study mechanisms of memory impairment or test potential new drugs in a mouse model of disease.

From left to right: Jesse Matherly, Danielle Goulding, Adam Bachstetter, Linda Van Eldik, Scott Webster, Machi Kaneko, Bin Xing, Edgardo Dimayuga

The research was led by Linda Van Eldik, director of the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, with Scott Webster, and Adam Bachstetter. Dr. Van Eldik is recognized as one of the early proponents of the neuroinflammatory hypothesis in CNS disorders, and is a leader in the field of neuroinflammation-related neurodegeneration. Her lab is actively pursuing the mechanisms by which aberrant glial-neuronal interactions contribute to and influence neurodegenerative processes during aging. The overall goal is to utilize knowledge of potentially “druggable” pathways to develop new therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease and traumatic brain injury. So far, the lab has met with success in several animal models of CNS disorders.

The Sanders-Brown Center on Aging is dedicated to improving the health of elderly individuals through research dedicated to understanding the aging process and age-related brain diseases. The center also promotes education, outreach, and clinical programs all designed to promote healthy brain aging.

In this behavioral characterization study of a mouse model of AD, we utilized the new state of the art University of Kentucky Rodent Behavior Core (RBC) directed by Dr Bruce O’Hara for many of the behavioral experiments. It is wonderful to have a resource like the RBC available here at the University, which provides a vital step in translating our basic scientific findings into future clinical applications.

This week is the Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Awareness Week. Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy joined the discussion and you can join in too #talkdementia.

For more information on Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, or to submit a manuscript, please visit the journal website or contact the Editorial Office. To keep up to date with the latest articles published in the journal, sign up for Article Alerts and follow us on twitter.

Eating a healthy diet is key to living well and reducing the risk of developing many diseases. While traditional healthy eating advice is focused on avoiding too much fat, an increasing number of studies emphasize the importance of avoiding highly processed foods such as ready meals and processed meat.

BMC Medicine recently published results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study by Sabine Rohrmann and colleagues, showing that people who eat large amounts of processed meat have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and early death. In a commentary published this week in BMC Medicine, Dariush Mozaffarian and colleagues from Harvard School of Public Health explore ...

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Eating a healthy diet is key to living well and reducing the risk of developing many diseases. While traditional healthy eating advice is focused on avoiding too much fat, an increasing number of studies emphasize the importance of avoiding highly processed foods such as ready meals and processed meat.

BMC Medicine recently published results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study by Sabine Rohrmann and colleagues, showing that people who eat large amounts of processed meat have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and early death. In a commentary published this week in BMC Medicine, Dariush Mozaffarian and colleagues from Harvard School of Public Health explore the implications of the EPIC study, highlighting how processed deli meats are sometimes promoted as “healthy choices”, but guidelines should prioritize avoiding these foods due to the high content of preservatives such as sodium.

The findings of the EPIC study attracted a great deal of media attention, with 47% of Guardian readers voting that they were put off eating processed meat. In BioMed Central’s new online magazine, Biome, we talk to Sabine Rohrmann about the study, and she discusses the importance of publishing research in an open-access journal so that readers can access the original study. Rohrmann describes how future research in this field will investigate the effects of different preservatives used in processed meat, as well as methods of meat preparation, on the risk of disease. We look forward to seeing these results and how they help to shape dietary guidelines in the future.

The importance of eating a healthy diet to avoid excessive weight gain and the associated complications was discussed extensively at the 20^th European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Liverpool last week. Miguel Ángel Martínez González described the results of PREDIMED, the first primary prevention trial to show that eating a Mediterranean diet decreases cardiovascular risk. Martínez González discussed how these findings will be extended in the PREDIMED plus trial, which will investigate the benefits of minimizing processed food consumption and increasing physical activity in addition to a Mediterranean diet. Exercise interventions were another key theme of the conference, with presentations focusing on how physical activity can have positive effects independently of weight loss.

A very controversial topic in obesity research at present is whether weight loss surgery should be given to patients who are obese but have a body mass index (BMI) below 35. Luca Busetto explained how there is limited evidence to show that surgery prevents the development of type 2 diabetes in these patients, and concluded that the benefits do not outweigh the risks. On the other hand, Martin Fried argued that surgery has profound effects on diabetes remission and should be considered in all obese patients. Interestingly, the US FDA advises that weight loss surgery should be given to those with obesity-related diabetes and a BMI between 30 and 40, whereas in the UK surgery is only recommended for those with a BMI greater than 35 where diet and exercise interventions have failed. The audience voted for a cautious approach to weight loss surgery in these patients.

Discussions at ECO highlighted that a multidisciplinary approach is required to tackle the obesity epidemic. Diet, education, physical activity, motivation and medical interventions are all key to living a healthy lifestyle and reducing the risk of early death.

AD is the most common form of dementia in older people and is characterized by behavioral disorders and a progressive decline in memory function. Genetic studies have provided the best evidence for cause and effect relationships in AD, and recent years have seen tremendous progress in genetics technology to allow for full individualized genomic screening across populations and within individuals.

Examples of the advances include identification of mutations in APP, PSEN1 and PSEN2 genes, which provided a link to the characteristic amyloid plaques seen in AD brains and supported the amyloid cascade hypothesis. Also, ...

Read more]]> This week is the Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Awareness Week and Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy is talking about the impact of genetic variants on Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

AD is the most common form of dementia in older people and is characterized by behavioral disorders and a progressive decline in memory function. Genetic studies have provided the best evidence for cause and effect relationships in AD, and recent years have seen tremendous progress in genetics technology to allow for full individualized genomic screening across populations and within individuals.

Examples of the advances include identification of mutations in APP, PSEN1 and PSEN2 genes, which provided a link to the characteristic amyloid plaques seen in AD brains and supported the amyloid cascade hypothesis. Also, studies of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene indicated that mutations of the ε4 allele are responsible for approximately one-third of the population-attributable risk for the disease.

Very recently, two large consortiums demonstrated that rare variants in the TREM2 gene (a type 1 membrane receptor protein primarily expressed on microglia in the central nervous system that has been shown to regulate phagocytosis and activation of monocytes) confers significant risk for AD. The association of TREM2 variants with AD highlights innate immunity’s role as a significant factor in AD pathogenesis.

In a new review published today for Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, Editor-in-Chief Todd Golde highlights TREM2’s importance: “With the spotlight firmly placed on TREM2’s role in AD, research advances will likely be quite rapid, and the emerging data will likely enable a more unified understanding of the function of innate immune signalling in AD.

TREM2 never reached genome-wide significance in the published genome-wide association studies. Thus, combining biological inference with whole exome or whole genome sequencing strategies is likely to yield a treasure chest of novel genetic variants in innate immune signalling factors that influence risk for AD. Hopefully, these will not only tell us more about AD pathogenesis, but will also reveal tractable therapeutic targets”

Continue the discussion – comment on this blog post or contact the Editorial Office at editorial@alzres.com

For more information on Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, or to submit a manuscript, please visit the journal website or contact the Editorial Office. To access all subscription content, including peer-reviewed reviews, commentaries and debates, register for a free online trial to the journal. To keep up to date with the latest articles published in the journal, sign up for Article Alerts and follow us on twitter.

Read more]]> Clinical oncology in Western countries is currently characterized by preventative programs (which include early diagnosis), combined treatments (radio-chemo-surgery), reconstructive surgery, and, more recently, by tailored treatment with monoclonal antibodies or specific inhibitors based on newly identified cancer biomarkers. Clinical oncology in the rest of the world, which represents 85.3% of the Earth’s population, has different priorities, strategies and aims, which are often difficult to compare. Major differences are not only due to the different socio-economical conditions and the national health programs, but also to disparities in cancer burden and their etiopathogenesis, as well the population-based genetic susceptibility. A further major difference is the age-distribution of the population. In the Western world, the population is very much aged, with people aged 65 and over representing 13.5% of the total in USA, 16.4 in Canada and 17.9% in Europe in 2013. On the contrary, in Africa and Asia, which together hold 60% of the total global population, over-65s represent less than 3% or less than 8%, respectively. For these reasons it is critical to highlight the clinical oncology peculiarities of those non-Western regions and let colleagues share their experiences, describe their strategies and express their opinions.

Within the global oncology field, a peculiar position is held by the African countries. Besides the young age of the population, the tropical climate, limited presence of environmental/chemical carcinogens and presence of wild animals determine the occurrence of specific diseases and infections. The factors contribute to a peculiar pattern of cancers, including Burkitt lymphoma and Kaposi’s sarcoma, which have been considered paradigmatic of those regions. Changes in the socio-economical settings and, in particular, the urbanization of an ageing population with later marriages and fewer pregnancies, exposure to chemical carcinogens and a better control of infections are heavily contributing to a new pattern of cancers. The African oncological community must rapidly adapt to the changes, taking advantage of their Western colleagues’ experiences, who could at the same time learn from these changes.

It is for these reasons that Infectious Agents & Cancer is launching a new ‘Clinical Oncology’ section. Edited by Serigne Magueye Gueye and Jan B. Vermorken, this will represent an opportunity to share experiences and information among worldwide oncologists and to identify and develop diagnostic, as well as therapeutic protocols, that are globally valid in the current community. The section will also feature a subsection on African cancers, edited by Henry Wabinga and Twalib Ngoma, which will allow African oncologists to describe the current oncology issues along with their findings/achievements for those “tropical” cancers, such as EBV-related Burkitt lymphoma and schistosomiasis-related bladder cancer, that are considered rare in the rest of the world.

Please submit your manuscript to the section via the online submission system for the journal. Before submitting your manuscript, please read the ‘Instructions for authors’. Please direct any questions regarding journal selection or the series in general to editorial@infectagentscancer.com.

Dr Scheltens is Professor of Cognitive Neurology and Director of the Alzheimer Centre at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, which he founded in 2000. Dr Scheltens is active in the field of biomarkers and clinical trials, with his main clinical and research interests including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, ...

Read more]]> We are delighted to welcome Dr Philip Scheltens to his new position as one of the Editors-in-Chief of Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, joining Dr Douglas Galasko (University of California, San Diego, USA) and Dr Todd Golde (University of Florida, USA). Dr Scheltens is replacing Dr Gordon Wilcock (University of Oxford, UK), who is stepping down from this role after many valuable years of guidance as Editor-in-Chief.

Dr Scheltens is Professor of Cognitive Neurology and Director of the Alzheimer Centre at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, which he founded in 2000. Dr Scheltens is active in the field of biomarkers and clinical trials, with his main clinical and research interests including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, magnetic resonance imaging, PET imaging and biomarkers.

This wide-ranging research knowledge compliments Dr Galasko’s and Dr Golde’s expertise, and we are looking forward to working with Dr Scheltens to continue the success and growth of the journal.

Dr Scheltens commented, “I am excited to join my esteemed colleagues to lead the journal. The field of Alzheimer’s disease is going through a very interesting and exciting phase and the journal is rightly positioned to make some important contributions to this field.”

As a major forum for translational research into Alzheimer’s dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy is dedicated to publishing international peer-reviewed articles at the forefront of scientific breakthroughs in this field. The journal is affiliated to Alzheimer’s Disease International and the Editors-in-Chief are supported by a world-renowned Editorial Board.

The journal will be receiving its first Thomson Reuters (ISI) Impact Factor next month. In addition to the bibliographic databases that articles published in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy are currently included, such as CAS, Embase, PubMed, PubMed Central and Scopus, the journal will also be indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded, Journal Citation Reports and Current Contents.

For more information on Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, or to submit a manuscript, please visit the journal website or contact the Editorial Office. To keep up to date with the latest articles published in the journal, sign up for Article Alerts and follow us on twitter.

Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (AOEM), edited by Professor Sang Baek Ko and supported by an expert editorial board,  is an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal that considers original contributions related to the field of occupational and environmental medicine.

“It is ...

Read more]]> Today marks the launch of Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the first Korean society journal to be published by BioMed Central. It is the official journal of the Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (KSOEM) and is the successor of Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (AOEM), edited by Professor Sang Baek Ko and supported by an expert editorial board,  is an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal that considers original contributions related to the field of occupational and environmental medicine.

“It is vitally important that occupational and environmental medicine researchers and professionals have an international forum through which they can share their work and experiences,” noted Professor Yangho Kim, the President of KSOEM, in his congratulatory message,  “especially when such information could help save or improve lives.”

AOEM is aimed at clinicians and researchers in the wide-ranging discipline of occupational and environmental medicine. The journal covers topics relating to the interactions between work and health, including, subjects like occupational and environmental epidemiology, toxicology, hygiene, diagnosis & treatment of diseases, management, organization and policy.

All articles and the launch editorial from the Editor-in-Chief are now available online. Visit the journal’s website and sign up for article alerts.

It’s commonly discussed how each of our genomes contains a story documenting the migration by our ancient ancestors.  This is most certainly true in that it is apparent we all originated from Africa and migrated to other continents from there. A study published today in Investigative Genetics proposes that some of the genetic diversity we commonly assume to be ancient may in fact be due to recent demographic events within the last 2000 years.

This study analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 999 individuals at 54 sites across the Netherlands. The authors studied this population in the expectation that the ancient genetic signatures from Paleolithic and Neolithic times, such as the Southeast to Northwest cline observed across Europe, ...

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It’s commonly discussed how each of our genomes contains a story documenting the migration by our ancient ancestors.  This is most certainly true in that it is apparent we all originated from Africa and migrated to other continents from there. A study published today in Investigative Genetics proposes that some of the genetic diversity we commonly assume to be ancient may in fact be due to recent demographic events within the last 2000 years.

This study analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 999 individuals at 54 sites across the Netherlands. The authors studied this population in the expectation that the ancient genetic signatures from Paleolithic and Neolithic times, such as the Southeast to Northwest cline observed across Europe, would not be detectable in the contemporary Dutch gene pool.

After analysis, the results demonstrated a subtle but very apparent genetic substructure across the country, dividing the population into four main genetic groups, and resembling the variation across Europe. Further to this, the observed pattern clearly correlated with geological and archaeological records for genetic discontinuities within the country. The authors therefore concluded that it is much more likely that this pattern in the gene pool was due to recent population movements.

The findings from this study suggest it is important for future genetic epidemiology studies that we clarify the contributions of both ancient and recent events to genetic diversity in populations. If further research were to confirm that recent demographic events are responsible for genetic diversity, this could provide useful investigative information to help profile unknown individuals in forensics, and also change the way we currently look at population genetics.

You can read the full article on the website, where you can also sign up for article alerts from the journal. For more information on Investigative Genetics, or to submit a manuscript, please visit the journal website or contact the Editorial Office.

On May 20, 1747, James Lind pioneered a scurvy trial on board the HMS Salisbury. Providing some crew members with two oranges and one lemon per day, while others were given cider, vinegar, sulphuric acid or seawater, along with their normal rations, Lind’s experiment is ranked as one of the first clinical trials in the history of medicine. More than 250 years later, the anniversary of his groundbreaking work is celebrated as  International Clinical Trials Day. Held annually by the National Institute of   Health Research, the principles of Lind’s work still form the basis of modern clinical trials.

In a commentary for  Trials, Dr David Sackett offers his perspective on more recent developments in clinical ...

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On May 20, 1747, James Lind pioneered a scurvy trial on board the HMS Salisbury. Providing some crew members with two oranges and one lemon per day, while others were given cider, vinegar, sulphuric acid or seawater, along with their normal rations, Lind’s experiment is ranked as one of the first clinical trials in the history of medicine. More than 250 years later, the anniversary of his groundbreaking work is celebrated as  International Clinical Trials Day. Held annually by the National Institute of   Health Research, the principles of Lind’s work still form the basis of modern clinical trials.

In a commentary for  Trials, Dr David Sackett offers his perspective on more recent developments in clinical trials, evaluating the changes that have taken place over the last decade, and contemplating the future of trial practice. One noticeable change, Dr Sackett notes, is that patients are becoming ever more informed and demanding: ‘Patient groups are increasingly holding trialists’ feet to the fire and forcing us to honour our obligations to them and their diseases, illnesses, predicaments, and other patient-relevant outcomes, rather than focusing only on our interests and those of the drug and device industries.’ The commentary also highlights the growing number of trials conducted in the developing world by trialists hailing from those regions, and the higher levels of recognition this research is receiving.

The  future of clinical trials looks positive, not least in the way trial results are used. Just as registering clinical trials has become the norm, there are calls for the publication of all trial results (regardless of outcome) to be an established practice. The AllTrials initiative, launched in January 2013, is gathering pace, gaining support from the European Medical Agency, many patient groups, and ‘big pharma’ giants, most notably GlaxoSmithKline which is now dedicated to releasing all of its trial results online. The shift towards publication of all results is an important one in the eyes of many researchers. A combination of journals dedicating publication space to more interesting positive findings, and reticence on the part of researchers to publish unwelcome results has led to publication bias and a wider distrust among doctors and patients as to whether the interventions they are prescribing and taking are really the best for the patient.  In a Q&A with Biome, the new online magazine from BioMed Central, Dr Ben Goldacre a co-founder of the AllTrials initiative, discusses the campaign, and how it can dramatically change the landscape of trial reporting. Dr Goldacre comments that ‘doctors, patients, payers, and researchers need access to all the results, of all the trials that have been conducted on a treatment, in order to make informed decisions about which is best. The idea that trial results should be withheld is ludicrous, it simply breaks evidence based medicine, and exposes the medical profession to justified mockery.’

The shift towards publication of all results can be seen as part of a wider move towards making research more available to an increasingly educated public, as well as those researchers and clinicians that directly use results from such research.  Last year, the UK government commissioned the Finch report, which advised parliament to demand that all research funded by public money be published as either ‘green’ or ‘gold’ open access. Universities and science minister, David Willets, promptly made the announcement that £10 million would be earmarked to aid the introduction of such a policy.

As a pioneer of open access, BioMed Central has seen the benefits that opening up research can bring. Tapping into the need for more transparency in clinical trails, the journal Trials and all other BioMed Central journals that publish trials and trial protocols, demand that authors register their clinical trials as a condition of submission. To that end, BioMed Central runs Current Controlled Trials on the behalf of ISRCTN, the UK’s trial registration service. To date, the register holds records of over 11,500 trials. BioMed Central also welcomes the HRA proposals ‘to make the registration of clinical trials within an agreed timeframe a condition of ethics approval’ and ‘to work with publishers to dispel the myths and perceptions about the difficulties in publishing results’.

The publication of negative results is gaining more attention among researchers, and trialists in particular. Trials journal supports the publication of negative results, alongside Journal of Negative Results, established for the sole purpose of publishing unexpected results, or results that go against the current understanding.

Today, billions of people across the globe will take drugs  – from paracetamol tablets to anti retrovirals – that are life saving and life enhancing, and that have all been through a lengthy process of intense testing. Over a quarter of a millennium researchers have refined this process, and continue to do so today, ensuring that the work James Lind began on the HMS Salisbury endures.

Female strawberry poison dart frogs can be non-choosy when it comes to finding a mate concludes research published in Frontiers in Zoology today. In a population with a strongly biased sex ratio and low trait variance between males, females receive no benefit from expending energy and  effort  searching out the ‘fittest’ mate. Instead they lose no time in seeking out the male in the closest proximity as a partner.

Ivonne Meuche, from the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, and her team continuously observed mating behaviour of 20 female Oophaga pumilio frogs, during the time period between two successive ovipositions. In parallel, they measured surrounding males’ behaviour and spatial distribution in order to establish what was important ...

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Female strawberry poison dart frogs can be non-choosy when it comes to finding a mate concludes research published in Frontiers in Zoology today. In a population with a strongly biased sex ratio and low trait variance between males, females receive no benefit from expending energy and  effort  searching out the ‘fittest’ mate. Instead they lose no time in seeking out the male in the closest proximity as a partner.

Ivonne Meuche, from the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, and her team continuously observed mating behaviour of 20 female Oophaga pumilio frogs, during the time period between two successive ovipositions. In parallel, they measured surrounding males’ behaviour and spatial distribution in order to establish what was important to females when choosing a male to mate with.  In most lek mating systems, where a number of males are present and thereby may compete for female attention, females will chose males based on heritable traits or assumed parenting skills. However, Meuche found that in this population, there was no correlation between mating success of a given male and any physical or acoustic trait measured, or territory size. Unusually, in this system, females selected males purely based on proximity.

The function of male display characteristics and behaviours is a well discussed topic of research for behavioural and evolutionary biologists. This study demonstrates an interesting example of an unusual female sampling tactic whereby females will  accept the closest male as a mate. The authors suggest that in this system, this is an optimum tactic due to low fecundity and low benefits of intensive mate sampling – hence there is little to gain by being a picky female. Further investigation is required to discover whether all strawberry poison dart frogs show these levels of indifference towards their mate choices.