Data from: Change in sex pheromone expression by nutritional shift in male cockroaches

Environmental conditions during sexual maturation impact sexual signal expression, but little is known about how individual histories of changing environmental conditions affect the intensity of male sexual advertisement. We investigated the effects of shifting dietary nutrient composition (protein vs. carbohydrates) in male Nauphoeta cinerea cockroaches on consumption, final lipid reserves, and sex pheromone levels subsequent to completing sexual maturation on a specific diet, at high and low concentration of dietary nutrients. Consumption, lipid reserves, and sex pheromone levels were highly affected by dietary nutrient composition with higher values on carbohydrate-biased diet, and males had significantly higher and lower levels of consumption, lipid reserves, and sex pheromones when shifted to a carbohydrate-biased and a protein-biased diet, respectively, compared with males maintained on either initial diet throughout the experiment. Males shifted to a carbohydrate-biased diet at high nutrient concentration fully recouped their sex pheromone levels, attaining levels that were not significantly lower than those in males maintained on carbohydrate-biased diet at high nutrient concentration throughout the experiment. Our study shows that male sexual display in N. cinerea is plastic and highly affected by present as well as previous dietary conditions. Signaling of adaptive quality through male sex pheromones can therefore vary dynamically within the early adult life of a male in response to the nutritional composition of food that is available to ingest. This contrasts morphological sexual traits in arthropods that are affected during development and are fixed at adulthood.性成熟阶段的环境条件会影响性信号的表达，但目前学界对个体经历的动态环境条件变化如何影响雄性性展示信号强度的认知仍较为匮乏。 本研究以雄性灰斑蠊（Nauphoeta cinerea）为实验对象，设置了高低两种日粮营养浓度梯度，探究了日粮营养组分（蛋白质与碳水化合物）的动态变化对其摄食量、最终脂质储备，以及在特定日粮中完成性成熟后的性信息素水平的影响。 研究结果显示，摄食量、脂质储备与性信息素水平均受日粮营养组分的显著调控，在碳水化合物偏好型日粮中各项指标水平更高；相较于全程维持初始日粮的对照组雄性个体，转换至碳水化合物偏好型日粮的雄性摄食量、脂质储备与性信息素水平显著升高，而转换至蛋白质偏好型日粮的个体则显著降低。在高营养浓度条件下转换至碳水化合物偏好型日粮的雄性个体，其性信息素水平可完全恢复，与全程维持高营养浓度碳水化合物偏好型日粮的雄性个体无显著差异。 本研究表明，灰斑蠊的雄性性展示具有表型可塑性，且显著受当前及过往日粮营养条件的影响。因此，雄性通过性信息素传递的适应性品质信号，可在雄性成年早期阶段随可摄入食物的营养组分发生动态变化。这与节肢动物中那些在发育阶段塑造、成年后便固定不变的形态学性征形成鲜明对比。