My name is Anthony Mathiron and my credo could be: “The most important is not the biological model, but the relevance of the scientific question raised by the study of its behaviour”. Indeed, since I discovered the fascinating variability and complexity of animal behaviour, I’m aiming to explore all the mechanisms and factors that can explain this diversity and to understand how it has evolved over time.
My first lab experience was during my first year of master in the lab of Dr David Laloi at Sorbonne Université (Paris, FR) where I studied the mate choice and mating strategies in females of the viviparous lizard Lacerta vivipara. During my second year of master, I was hosted during 6 months at the lab of Dr Maud Ferrari (University of Saskatchewan, CA). I conducted an experiment on individual and social learning of predation risk in the minnow Pimephales promelas. I also participated to the study of generalization predation risk in wood frog tadpoles Lythobates sylvaticus, in collaboration with Dr Douglas Chivers.
In spring 2016, I carried out a research project under the supervision of Dr Mathieu Denoël (Laboratory of Fish and Amphibian Ethology, University of Liège, BE) to explore mechanisms and consequences linked to the metamorphosis of an urodel amphibian, the palmate newt Lissotriton helveticus. One experiment allowed to test the influence of water level and temperature on the triggering of metamorphosis. A second experiment – carried out in collaboration with Dr Charlotte Cornil at GIGA (University of Liège) and Pr Caitlin Gabor (Biology Department, University of Texas, USA) – aimed to identify the importance of corticosterone in the metamorphosis process.
From October 2016 to September 2019, I did my Ph.D. at the Insect Biology Research Institute (IRBI, University of Tours) under the supervision of Dr Marlène Goubault and Dr Ryan Earley from the University of Alabama (“Department of Biological Sciences”, USA). My research focused on the behavioural strategies during contest over host in females of the solitary parasitoid Eupelmus vuilleti. In particular, I tested how the value of the resource (i.e. the host) and the genetic relatedness between females can affect their aggressiveness and their probability of winning a contest. I was also interested in the hormonal mediation of these behaviours. I therefore studied the role of two families of hormones that regulate different life history traits and behaviours in adult insects: juvenile hormone and ecdysteroids.
Today I am a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Prof. Frédéric Silvestre (LEAP, University of Namur, BE), thanks to a grant from the french Foundation FYSSEN. My two projects both aim to investigate the putative hormonal and epigenetic mechanisms that underlie behavioural plasticity in the mangrove rivulus Kryptolebias marmoratus. This fish is one of two only known hermaphrodite vertebrates that commonly breed by self-fertilization. Selfing allows the rivulus to express a very low genetic variability within the lineages, thus making possible to work with highly homozygous and isogenic natural lineages and, therefore, to reduce the genetic noise within the strains during the experiments. The first project aims to explore how an environmental stress can affect developmental variation of behaviour, physiology and molecular traits in rivulus. To do so, we will investigate the effect of permethrin, a neurotoxic compound which is found in significant quantities in all environments. Specifically, we will study the i) immediate effect of exposition to permethrin on behaviour, physiology, life-history traits and epigenetic in rivulus larvae, and ii) the delayed effect of exposition to permethrin on behaviour, physiology and epigenetic in rivulus adults. The main objective of the second project will be to characterize mechanisms that explain the variability of personality in fishes. Specifically, we will study i) the variability of an aggressive temperament in mangrove rivulus from several isogenic lineages, ii) the relationships between hormone levels of individuals and the expression of aggressive traits, and iii) the link between the level of gene expression and methylation in the brain and the behavioural traits variability between lineages.
Mathiron, A.G.E., Dixneuf, C., Mondy, N., Earley, R.L., & Goubault, M. Ecdysteroids affect female reproductive status and outcome of contest over hosts in the parasitoid wasp Eupelmus vuilleti. Hormones and Behavior, 125,104819. Impact Factor: 3.684
Tibbetts, E.A., Laub, E., Mathiron, A.G.E. & Goubault, M. 2019. The challenge hypothesis in insects. Hormones and Behavior. Impact Factor: 3.684
Mathiron, A.G.E., Pottier, P. & Goubault, M. 2019. Keep calm, we know each other: kin recognition affects aggressiveness and conflict resolution in a solitary parasitoid. Animal Behaviour, Impact Factor: 2.689
Mathiron, A.G.E., Earley, R.L. & Goubault, M. 2019. Juvenile Hormone manipulation affects female reproductive status and aggressiveness in a non-social parasitoid wasp. General and Comparative Endocrinology, Impact Factor: 2.426
Mathiron, A.G.E., Pottier, P. & Goubault, M. 2018. Let the most motivated win: resource value components affect contest outcome in a parasitoid wasp. Behavioral Ecology, 29(5), 1088–1095. Impact Factor: 2.761
Mathiron, A.G.E., Lena, J., Baouch, S., & Denoël, M. 2017. The ‘male escape hypothesis’: sex-biased metamorphosis in response to climatic drivers in a facultatively paedomorphic amphibian. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1853). Impact Factor: 4.637
Mathiron, A.G.E., Crane, A. L. & Ferrari, M. C. O. 2015. Individual vs. social learning of predator information in fish : does group size affect learning efficacy ? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 69, (6), 939-949. Impact Factor: 2.277
Chivers, D.P., Mathiron, A., Sloychuk, J. R. & Ferrari, M.C.O. 2015. Responses of tadpoles to hybrid predator odours: strong maternal signatures and the potential risk/response mismatch. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 282. Impact Factor: 4.637
Crane, A.L., Mathiron, A.G.E. & Ferrari, M.C.O. 2015. Social learning in a high-risk environment: incomplete disregard for the ‘minnow that cried pike’ results in culturally -transmitted neophobia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 282. Impact Factor: 4.637