Chronic Co-species Housing Mice and Rats Increased the Competitiveness of Male Mice
Chronic Co-species Housing Mice and Rats Increased the Competitiveness of Male Mice
复制标题
长期同种饲养小鼠和大鼠提高了雄性小鼠的竞争力
DOI：
10.1093/chemse/bjw164
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发表时间：
2017-03-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Zhang, Jian-Xu
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Liu, Ying-Juan;Li, Lai-Fu;Zhang, Jian-Xu
在自然界中，老鼠是老鼠的天敌。然而，在一些实验室中，将小鼠和大鼠关在同一房间中是常见的做法。在这项研究中，我们调查了长期同种圈养条件下小鼠的行为和生理反应。将24只雄性小鼠随机分配至其原始饲养室（对照）或大鼠室（共种饲养）超过6周。在旷场和明暗箱实验中，同种共居小鼠和对照小鼠的行为没有差异。在成对尿液气味[兔尿]的二选一测试中（作为一种新的气味）与老鼠尿，猫尿（作为一种天然的捕食者气味）与兔尿，猫尿与大鼠尿]，与对照组相比，同种饲养的小鼠更愿意研究大鼠尿气味，并且可能已经适应了它。在遭遇测试中，暴露于大鼠房间的小鼠表现出增加的攻击水平，它们的尿液对雌性更有吸引力。相应地，主要尿蛋白的水平增加，在共同物种圈养的小鼠尿液，沿着一些挥发性信息素。血清睾酮水平也提高了在共同种圈养的小鼠，而皮质酮水平没有不同。右侧海马和纹状体的去甲肾上腺素、多巴胺和5-HT水平在两组之间没有差异。我们的研究结果表明，长期的同种住房的结果在适应雄性小鼠，此外，似乎长期的大鼠气味刺激增强小鼠的竞争力，这表明，适当的捕食者气味刺激可能是重要的猎物动物的健身。
Rats are predators of mice in nature. Nevertheless, it is a common practice to house mice and rats in a same room in some laboratories. In this study, we investigated the behavioral and physiological responsively of mice in long-term co-species housing conditions. Twenty-four male mice were randomly assigned to their original raising room (control) or a rat room (co-species-housed) for more than 6 weeks. In the open-field and light-dark box tests, the behaviors of the co-species-housed mice and controls were not different. In a 2-choice test of paired urine odors [rabbit urine (as a novel odor) vs. rat urine, cat urine (as a natural predator-scent) vs. rabbit urine, and cat urine vs. rat urine], the co-species-housed mice were more ready to investigate the rat urine odor compared with the controls and may have adapted to it. In an encounter test, the rat-room-exposed mice exhibited increased aggression levels, and their urines were more attractive to females. Correspondingly, the levels of major urinary proteins were increased in the co-species-housed mouse urine, along with some volatile pheromones. The serum testosterone levels were also enhanced in the co-species-housed mice, whereas the corticosterone levels were not different. The norepinephrine, dopamine, and 5-HT levels in the right hippocampus and striatum were not different between the 2. Our findings indicate that chronic co-species housing results in adaptation in male mice; furthermore, it appears that long-term rat-odor stimuli enhance the competitiveness of mice, which suggests that appropriate predator-odor stimuli may be important to the fitness of prey animals.