Kin discrimination and female mate choice in the naked mole-rat Heterocephalus glaber
Kin discrimination and female mate choice in the naked mole-rat Heterocephalus glaber
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.1999.0877
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发表时间：
1999-10-07
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Faulkes, CG
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Clarke, FM;Faulkes, CG
裸鼹鼠是一种群居的啮齿动物，自然表现出高度的近亲繁殖。动物持续的近亲繁殖通常会导致适应性的大幅下降，因此，分散和避免近亲交配是两种常见的近亲繁殖避免机制。在裸鼹鼠中，前者的证据最近被发现。在这里，我们解决后一个机制，通过调查亲属识别和女性择偶使用一系列的选择测试，其中气味，社会和配偶偏好的女性被确定。妇女受到的歧视似乎取决于她们的生育状况。繁殖活跃的女性更喜欢与陌生的男性，而繁殖不活跃的女性不歧视。女性不会区分亲属和非亲属，这表明识别的标准是熟悉程度，而不是检测基因相似性本身。在野外，裸鼹鼠占据离散的洞穴系统和分散和混合与非亲属被认为是比较罕见的。因此，熟悉性识别可能是裸鼹鼠的一种高效的亲属识别机制。繁殖活跃的女性对陌生男性的偏好被解释为避免近亲繁殖。这些发现表明，尽管有近亲繁殖的进化史，裸鼹鼠可能无法免除近亲繁殖衰退的影响，并会试图在机会出现时进行远系繁殖。
Naked mole-rats are fossorial, eusocial rodents that naturally exhibit high levels of inbreeding. Persistent inbreeding in animals often results in a substantial decline in fitness and, thus, dispersal and avoidance of kin as mates are two common inbreeding avoidance mechanisms. In the naked mole-rat evidence for the former has recently been found. Here we address the latter mechanism by investigating kin recognition and female mate choice using a series of choice tests in which the odour, social and mate preferences of females were determined. Discrimination by females appears to be dependent on their reproductive status. Reproductively active females prefer to associate with unfamiliar males, whereas reproductively inactive females do not discriminate. Females do not discriminate between kin and non-kin suggesting chat the criterion for recognition is familiarity, not detection of genetic similarity per se. In the wild, naked mole-rats occupy discrete burrow systems and dispersal and mixing with non-kin is thought to be comparatively rare. Thus, recognition by familiarity may function as a highly efficient kin recognition mechanism in the naked mole-rat. A preference by reproductively active females for unfamiliar males is interpreted as inbreeding avoidance. These findings suggest that, despite an evolutionary history of close inbreeding, naked mole-rats may not be exempt from the effects of inbreeding depression and will attempt to outbreed should the opportunity arise.