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Penn Dustin

Zala Sarah

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

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

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13 Publications