Department of Anatomy, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.
Proc Biol Sci. 2024 Feb 28;291(2017):20231848. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1848.
Theories of ageing predict that investment in reproduction will trade-off against survival and later-life reproduction. Recent evidence from invertebrates suggests that just perceiving cues of a potential mate's presence can reduce lifespan, particularly in males, and that activation of neuroendocrine reward pathways associated with mating can alleviate these effects. Whether similar effects occur in vertebrates remains untested. We tested whether exposure to olfactory cues from the opposite sex would influence mortality and reproductive senescence in male mice. We observed that males exposed to female olfactory cues from middle- to old age (from 10 to 24 months of age) showed reduced late-life fertility, irrespective of whether they had also been allowed to mate with females earlier in life. Males that were exposed to female odours in conjunction with mating also showed an increased mortality rate across the exposure period, indicating that olfactory cues from females can increase male mortality in some environments. Our results show that exposure to female odours can influence reproductive ageing and mortality in male mice, highlighting that sensory perception of mates may be an important driver of life-history trade-offs in mammals.
衰老理论预测，繁殖投资将与生存和晚年繁殖发生权衡。来自无脊椎动物的最新证据表明，仅仅感知到潜在配偶存在的线索就可以缩短寿命，尤其是在雄性中，而与交配相关的神经内分泌奖励途径的激活可以减轻这些影响。类似的影响是否发生在脊椎动物中尚未得到检验。我们测试了暴露于异性的嗅觉线索是否会影响雄性小鼠的死亡率和生殖衰老。我们观察到，从中年到老年（10 至 24 个月大）暴露于雌性嗅觉线索的雄性表现出晚期生育力降低，而不论它们是否在生命早期也与雌性交配过。与交配同时暴露于雌性气味的雄性在暴露期间的死亡率也有所增加，这表明雌性的嗅觉线索在某些环境中可能会增加雄性的死亡率。我们的研究结果表明，暴露于雌性气味会影响雄性小鼠的生殖衰老和死亡率，这突出表明对配偶的感官感知可能是哺乳动物生活史权衡的一个重要驱动因素。
