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Updated: Aug 16, 2025

Assessment of Social Transmission of Food Preferences Behaviors
Published on: January 25, 2018
Socially transferred materials: why and how to study them
Sanja Maria Hakala1, Haruna Fujioka2, Katharina Gapp3
1Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Medicine, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
Abstract:
When biological material is transferred from one individual's body to another, as in ejaculate, eggs, and milk, secondary donor-produced molecules are often transferred along with the main cargo, and influence the physiology and fitness of the receiver. Both social and solitary animals exhibit such social transfers at certain life stages. The secondary, bioactive, and transfer-supporting components in socially transferred materials have evolved convergently to the point where they are used in applications across taxa and type of transfer. The composition of these materials is typically highly dynamic and context dependent, and their components drive the physiological and behavioral evolution of many taxa. Our establishment of the concept of socially transferred materials unifies this multidisciplinary topic and will benefit both theory and applications.
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