ИСТИНА

Bird song is a sexually selected male trait where females select males on the basis of song quality. It is well known that in Passerine birds song learning plays an essential role in song development (Hultsch, Todt, 2004; Catchpole, Slater, 2008). Genetics is also important in song development, but little is known about relations between individual genotype and song structure. However females selecting males by preferring certain song characteristics may choose a good genes (Foerster et al. 2003). In our work we test the hypothesis that certain song characteristics may be genetically determined. The Wood Warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix) singing a very simple song has been chosen as the model species. Wood Warbler songs consist of two phrases. The frequency modulation of the first phrase is similar in all males, the second phrase varies among males and has three types which differ significantly in frequency band and trill rate (p<0.001, 60 males, 10-15 songs per male). Every male performs only one type of the second phrase. We expect that if the second phrase type is genetically determined then the close related males should have the same phrase type. For the preliminary analysis we have studied 95 songs of 19 males, the genetic distances between them were estimated in GenAlEx 6.5 on the basis of 5 microsatellite loci analysis. Pairwise individual genotype and individual second phrase structure were tested for correlation using Mantel tests. Mantel test showed significant (p<0.006) correlation between matrices of male genetic distances and the second phrase structures. This result supports the hypothesis that the Wood Warbler second phrase structure has some genetic determination.