Female scent accelerates growth of juvenile male mice
Abstract Exposing female house mice (Mus musculus) to male urinary scent accelerates their sexual development (Vandenbergh effect). Here, we tested whether exposing juvenile male mice to females’ urine similarly influences male growth and size of their sexual organs. We exposed three-week old male h...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-34548-3 |
| _version_ | 1827952716506202112 |
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| author | Sarah M. Zala Brian Church Wayne K. Potts Felix Knauer Dustin J. Penn |
| author_facet | Sarah M. Zala Brian Church Wayne K. Potts Felix Knauer Dustin J. Penn |
| author_sort | Sarah M. Zala |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Exposing female house mice (Mus musculus) to male urinary scent accelerates their sexual development (Vandenbergh effect). Here, we tested whether exposing juvenile male mice to females’ urine similarly influences male growth and size of their sexual organs. We exposed three-week old male house mice to female urine or water (control) for ca. three months. We found that female-exposed males grew significantly faster and gained more body mass than controls, despite all males being reared on a controlled diet, but we detected no differences in males' muscle mass or sexual organs. In contrast, exposing juvenile males to male urine had no effect their growth. We tested whether the males' accelerated growth imposed functional trade-offs on males' immune resistance to an experimental infection. We challenged the same male subjects with an avirulent bacterial pathogen (Salmonella enterica), but found no evidence that faster growth impacted their bacterial clearance, body mass or survival during infection compared to controls. Our results provide the first evidence to our knowledge that juvenile male mice accelerate their growth when exposed to the urine of adult females, though we found no evidence that increased growth had negative trade-offs on immune resistance to infectious disease. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:03:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3d1c79707eee4175989eb444da86ad88 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:03:07Z |
| publishDate | 2023-05-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-3d1c79707eee4175989eb444da86ad882023-05-07T11:12:16ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222023-05-011311710.1038/s41598-023-34548-3Female scent accelerates growth of juvenile male miceSarah M. Zala0Brian Church1Wayne K. Potts2Felix Knauer3Dustin J. Penn4Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine, ViennaDepartment of Biology, University of UtahDepartment of Biology, University of UtahResearch Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine, ViennaKonrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine, ViennaAbstract Exposing female house mice (Mus musculus) to male urinary scent accelerates their sexual development (Vandenbergh effect). Here, we tested whether exposing juvenile male mice to females’ urine similarly influences male growth and size of their sexual organs. We exposed three-week old male house mice to female urine or water (control) for ca. three months. We found that female-exposed males grew significantly faster and gained more body mass than controls, despite all males being reared on a controlled diet, but we detected no differences in males' muscle mass or sexual organs. In contrast, exposing juvenile males to male urine had no effect their growth. We tested whether the males' accelerated growth imposed functional trade-offs on males' immune resistance to an experimental infection. We challenged the same male subjects with an avirulent bacterial pathogen (Salmonella enterica), but found no evidence that faster growth impacted their bacterial clearance, body mass or survival during infection compared to controls. Our results provide the first evidence to our knowledge that juvenile male mice accelerate their growth when exposed to the urine of adult females, though we found no evidence that increased growth had negative trade-offs on immune resistance to infectious disease.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-34548-3 |
| spellingShingle | Sarah M. Zala Brian Church Wayne K. Potts Felix Knauer Dustin J. Penn Female scent accelerates growth of juvenile male mice Scientific Reports |
| title | Female scent accelerates growth of juvenile male mice |
| title_full | Female scent accelerates growth of juvenile male mice |
| title_fullStr | Female scent accelerates growth of juvenile male mice |
| title_full_unstemmed | Female scent accelerates growth of juvenile male mice |
| title_short | Female scent accelerates growth of juvenile male mice |
| title_sort | female scent accelerates growth of juvenile male mice |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-34548-3 |
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