Graham Brittney M, Solomon Nancy G, Noe Douglas A, Keane Brian
Department of Biology, Miami University, Hamilton, OH 45011, United States.
Department of Biology, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, United States.
Behav Processes. 2016 Jul;128:53-7. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2016.04.006. Epub 2016 Apr 12.
Females are generally expected to be selective when choosing their social and sexual partners. In a previous laboratory study, female prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) showed significant social and sexual preferences for males with longer microsatellite DNA within the avpr1a gene encoding the vasopressin 1a receptor, as predicted if females select mates whose parental behaviour should increase female reproductive success. We tested the hypothesis that males with short versus long avpr1a microsatellite alleles exhibit differences in courtship behaviour, which could act as cues for female mate preference. The only behavioural difference we detected between males with short versus long avpr1a microsatellite alleles in mate preference trials was that males with short avpr1a microsatellite alleles sniffed the anogenital region of females more frequently during the first two days of the trials. Our results did not strongly support the hypothesis that a male's avpr1a genotype predicts the courtship behaviours we measured and suggests that other courtship behaviours or traits, such as odour and vocalizations, may be more important to female prairie voles when choosing mates. Additional studies using a wider array of species are needed to assess the degree to which male mammal courtship behaviour provides information on mate quality to females.
一般认为，雌性在选择社交和性伴侣时会很挑剔。在之前的一项实验室研究中，雌性草原田鼠（Microtus ochrogaster）对编码血管加压素1a受体的avpr1a基因内微卫星DNA较长的雄性表现出显著的社交和性偏好，这正如所预测的那样，如果雌性选择的配偶其亲代行为会提高雌性的繁殖成功率。我们检验了这样一个假设，即avpr1a微卫星等位基因短的雄性与长的雄性在求偶行为上存在差异，而这种差异可能成为雌性配偶偏好的线索。在配偶偏好试验中，我们检测到avpr1a微卫星等位基因短的雄性与长的雄性之间唯一的行为差异是，在试验的前两天，avpr1a微卫星等位基因短的雄性更频繁地嗅闻雌性的肛门生殖器区域。我们的结果并没有强有力地支持这样的假设，即雄性的avpr1a基因型能预测我们所测量的求偶行为，这表明其他求偶行为或特征，如气味和叫声，在雌性草原田鼠选择配偶时可能更为重要。需要使用更广泛的物种进行更多研究，以评估雄性哺乳动物的求偶行为在多大程度上能向雌性提供有关配偶质量的信息。
