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Adaptive functions of ultrasonic vocalizations in male mice

Abstract

Adaptive functions of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) of male house mice During courtship and mating male house mice (Mus musculus) emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), which are surprisingly complex and contain features of bird song (i.e., strings of syllables, often different types, uttered in succession to form a recognizable sequence over time). The discovery that male mice produce ‘silent songs’ has spurred much interest in this behavior, and USVs are rapidly becoming an important model for vocalization research and a common behavioral phenotype for a wide variety of studies using mouse models. The adaptive functions of the USVs of house mice are still unclear, however, as most studies have only investigated domesticated laboratory strains. We conducted the first studies on the USVs of wild house mouse, and we found that females are attracted to male USVs and they prefer the calls of non-siblings versus siblings. We conducted spectral analyses and found that males’ USVs are individually distinctive and show more differences between non-siblings than siblings. Thus, female mice potentially use male USVs for individual recognition and for assessing kinship of potential mates. Our general aim is to determine the adaptive functions of male USVs, and more specifically, we will test whether and how USVs affect males’ reproductive success through mate choice, male-male competition, or both. Our results will have implications for sexual selection and animal communication, and applied efforts to determine whether vocalizations provide a non- invasive trait for diagnosing disease, genetic speech defects, and animal welfare.

Statistik Austria science classification

106012         Evolutionary research

106051         Behavioural biology

305102         DNA analysis (Forensic medicine)

Keywords

Akustische Kommunikation

Hausmaus

Mus musculus

Sexuelle Selektion

Lemma

Ultraschallgesänge bei Mäusen

Project leader

Penn Dustin

Duration

01.11.15-31.10.20

Programme

FWF Einzelprojekte

Type of Research

Basic research

Staff

Zala S., Project team member

Marconi M., Project team member

Nicolakis D., Project team member

Vetmed Research Units

Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology

Projekt partner

Contact: Peter Balazs, Anton Noll
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Austria

Funded by

FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Sensengasse 1, 1090 Wien, Austria

Link To Project Finder

31 Publications

Fuhrmann, Nathalie (2020): Zeigen Vokalisationen im Ultraschallbereich Inzucht auf?. Diplomarbeit, Vet. Med. Univ. Wien, pp. 50.

Nicolakis, D; Marconi, MA; Zala, SM; Penn, DJ (2020): Ultrasonic vocalizations in house mice depend upon genetic relatedness of mating partners and correlate with subsequent reproductive success. Front Zool. 2020; 17:10

Penn, DJ; Számadó, S (2019): The Handicap Principle: How an erroneous idea became a scientific principle. 95--ASAB Konstanz Summer Conference; AUG 26-28, 2019; Konstanz, Germany.

Marconi, MA (2019): Courtship ultrasonic vocalizations contain individual signatures in male house mice. 13--Graduate Meeting Animal Behaviour 2019; Oct 23-25, 2019; Plön, Germany.

Nicolakis, D (2019): Ultrasonic vocalizations during courtship interactions in wild-derived house mice. 16--Graduate Meeting: Animal Behaviour 2019; Oct 23-25, 2019; Plön, Germany.

Nicolakis, D; Marconi, MA; Zala, SM; Penn, DJ (2019): Dynamic changes in ultrasonic vocalisations during the early phase of courtship in wild-derived house mice. 167--XXVII International Bioacoustics Congress; AUG 31- SEP 5, 2019; Brighton, United Kingdom.

Marconi, MA; Nicolakis, D; Abbasi, R; Penn, DJ; Zala, SM (2019): Vocal personality as signature of individual variation and consistency in wild-derived male house mice. 162--XXVII International Bioacoustics Congress; AUG 31- SEP 5, 2019; Brighton, United Kingdom.

Penn, DJ; Számadó, S (2020): The Handicap Principle: how an erroneous hypothesis became a scientific principle. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2020 95 (1) 267-290.

Abbasi, R; Balazs, P; Noll, A; Nicolakis, D; Marconi, MA; Zala, SM; Penn, DJ (2019): Applying convolutional neural networks to the analysis of mouse ultrasonic vocalizations. 2925-2931.-23rd International Congress on Acoustics; SEP 9-13, 2019; Aachen, Germany.

Dumfart, Sophie (2019): Do ultrasonic vocalizations of male wild house mice attract females? (Mus musculus musculus). Diplomarbeit, Univ. Wien, pp. 55.

Penn, DJ; Számadó, S (2019): The History of the Handicap Principle. -ASAB Summer 2019; AUG 26-28, 2019; Konstanz, Germany.

Thonhauser, KE; Raffetzeder, A; Penn, DJ (2019): Sexual experience has no effect on male mating or reproductive success in house mice. Sci Rep. 2019; 9(1):12145

Gliga, Diana Suzana (2019): Priming effects on wild-derived male house mice during socio-sexual interactions with females. Diplomarbeit, Vet. Med. Univ. Wien, pp. 50.

Thonhauser, KE; Tscheppe, G; Gantenbein, F; Rülicke, T; Penn, DJ (2018): Does strategic sperm production depend upon male quality? 69-69.-European Conference on Behavioural Biology (ECBB) 2018; AUG 9-12, 2018; Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Penn, DJ; Számado, S (2018): The trade-offs of honest signals. 53-53.-European Conference on Behavioural Biology; AUG 9-12, 2018; Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Zala, SM; Reitschmidt, D; Marconi, MA; Penn, DJ (2018): Sexual priming enhances emission of ultrasonic vocalizations of male mice. 128-128.-European Conference on Behavioural Biology (ECBB) 2018; AUG 9-12, 2018; Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Reitschmidt, D; Marconi, MA; Zala, SM; Penn, DJ (2018): Do ultrasonic vocalizations during courtship predict reproductive success in house mice? 117-117.-European Conference on Behavioural Biology (ECBB) 2018; AUG 9-12, 2018; Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Marconi, MA; Reitschmidt, D; Abbasi, R; Penn, DJ; Zala, SM (2018): Do ultrasonic vocalizations of wild house mice contain individual signatures? 102-102.-European Conference on Behavioural Biology (ECBB) 2018; AUG 9-12, 2018; Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Számadó, S; Penn, DJ (2018): Does the handicap principle explain the evolution of dimorphic ornaments? Anim Behav. 2018; 138:e7-e10

Frottier, Naemi (2017): Does singing indicate a bold personality? On the relationship between vocalizing and personality traits in house mice Bakkalaureatsarbeit, Universität Wien, pp. 16.

Zala, SM; Reitschmidt, D; Noll, A; Balazs, P; Penn, DJ (2017): Sex-dependent modulation of ultrasonic vocalizations in house mice (Mus musculus musculus). PLoS One. 2017; 12(12):e0188647

Zala, SM; Reitschmidt, D; Penn, DJ (2017): Do male ultrasonic vocalizations signal sexual motivation? -Behaviour 2017; JUL 30 - AUG 04, 2017; Estoril, Portugal.

Thonhauser, KE; Luzynski, KC; Reitschmidt, D; Marconi, MA; Zala, SM; Penn, DJ (2017): Strategic sperm regulation: It isn’t quantity, but quality that matters. -Behaviour 2017; JUL 30 - AUG 04, 2017; Estoril, Portugal.

Számadó, S; Penn, D (2017): The ‘Trade-Off Principle’ as an alternative to the ‘Handicap Principle’. -Behaviour 2017; JUL 30 - AUG 04, 2017; Estoril, Portugal.

Zala, SM; Reitschmidt, D; Noll, A; Balazs, P; Penn, DJ (2017): Automatic mouse ultrasound detector (A-MUD): A new tool for processing rodent vocalizations. PLoS One. 2017; 12(7):e0181200

Marconi, MA; Reitschmidt, D, Penn, DJ; Zala, SM (2016): Ultrasonic vocalizations of house mice in semi-natural conditions. 300-300.-8th European Conference on Behavioural Biology (ECBB); JUL 12-15, 2016; Vienna, AUSTRIA. Book of Abstracts;

Reitschmidt, D; Noll, A; Balazs, P; Penn, DJ; Zala, SM (2016): Ultrasonic vocalizations of mice enhanced by sexual experience – the first implementation of the new Automatic Mouse USV Detector (A-MUD). 231-231.-8th European Conference on Behavioural Biology, Vienna, Austria; JUL 12-15, 2016; Vienna, Austria. Book of Abstracts;

Zala, SM; Reitschmidt, D; Penn, DJ (2016): Who calls for whom? Ultrasonic vocalizations of mice depend upon the sex of the sender and Receiver. 343-343.-8th European Conference on Behavioural Biology (ECBB); JUL 12-15, 2016; Vienna, AUSTRIA. Book of Abstracts;

Zala, SM; Reitschmidt, D; Penn, DJ (2016): Sex-dependent modulation of ultrasonic vocalizations in house mice. 86-87.-16th Congress of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology; JUL 28 - AUG 03, 2016; Exeter, UK. ISBE Poster Abstract Book;

Reitschmidt, D (2015): Functions of ultrasonic vocalizations in wild house mice (Mus musculus musculus). Master Thesis, Univ. Wien, pp. 69.

Musolf, K; Meindl, S; Larsen, AL; Kalcounis-Rueppell, MC; Penn, DJ (2015): Ultrasonic Vocalizations of Male Mice Differ among Species and Females Show Assortative Preferences for Male Calls. PLoS One. 2015; 10(8):e0134123