Female BALB/c mice prefer the odor of mates producing fewer progeny

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Abstract

Mate choice is the very important part of sexual selection. It is known that free mate choice is to provide the most viable offspring are born. Researches on different animal species found that viability from introduction to sexual maturity is significantly higher in individuals born in crossbreeding in accordance with free behavioral mate choice, compared to that in crossbreeding against the mate choice. Making the choice, the female may rely on visual, vocal or olfactory signals of male. Most of experiments evaluating sexual choice allowing interactions with the animal, making it impossible to determine the specific contribution of each separate signal. Odor play a crucial role in intraspecific communication in rodents. Individuals are able to recognize sex, reproductive status, genotype, and diet and health condition conspecifics by odor. However, very few articles unite olfactory signals from the male to information about his paternal effects. In our research, we mated a male with two females. The number of live embryos, their weight and the weight of fetal placentas evaluated reproductive success of males. Naive females in olfactory tests then evaluated the volatile urine fraction of the males. Male urine samples were also analyzed using chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. In result, the naive BALB/c females prefer males with low number of fetus in the litter compared to males with high number of fetus in the litter. Instrumental method of analysis approved the opportunity to differentiate between the groups of males. Other pregnancy parameters did not affect naive females’ preference for male urine samples.

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About the authors

A. S. Khotskina

The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science

Author for correspondence.
Email: dotcenko@bionet.nsc.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

Y. V. Patrushev

The Federal Research Center Boreskov Institute of Catalysis of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science

Email: dotcenko@bionet.nsc.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

D. I. Yusupova

The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science

Email: dotcenko@bionet.nsc.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

L. A. Gerlinskaya

The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science

Email: dotcenko@bionet.nsc.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

S. O. Maslennikova

The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science

Email: dotcenko@bionet.nsc.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

D. V. Petrovskii

The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science

Email: dotcenko@bionet.nsc.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

M. P. Moshkin

The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science

Email: dotcenko@bionet.nsc.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

E. L. Zavjalov

The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science

Email: dotcenko@bionet.nsc.ru
Russian Federation, Novosibirsk

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2. Fig. 1. Example of a chromatogram of urine from a BALB/c male.

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3. Fig. 2. Distribution of individual male VOC patterns in the PLS axes space. (a): filled square – C57BL/6 males with small litters, hatched square – C57BL/6 males with large litters, filled circle – BALB/c males with small litters, hatched circle – BALB/c males with large litters. (b): filled square – C57BL/6 males with small fruit weight, hatched square – C57BL/6 males with large fruit weight, filled circle – BALB/c males with small fruit weight, hatched circle – BALB/c males with large fruit weight. (c): filled square – C57BL/6 males with small placenta weight in fetuses, hatched square – C57BL/6 males with large placenta weight in fetuses, filled circle – BALB/c males with small placenta weight in fetuses, hatched circle – BALB/c males with large placenta weight in fetuses.

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4. Fig. 3. (a) – Number of approaches to urine samples by males depending on the number of embryos in their offspring. (b) – Time spent sniffing urine samples by males depending on the number of embryos in their offspring. HSD-test * – p < 0.05, ** – p < 0.01

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