LTREB: Fitness Consequences of Pleiotropic Androgen Effects in Free-Living Mammals

LTREB：多效性雄激素效应对自由生活的哺乳动物的健康影响

• 批准号: 0819437
• 负责人: Kay Holekamp
• 金额: $ 45万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-08-15 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0819437&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: LTREB; Fitness; Consequences; Pleiotropic; Androgen

Little is known about the effects of prenatal hormone exposure on offspring fitness in natural populations. Therefore, the primary goal of this project is to determine how brief exposure to varying concentrations of male hormones (androgens) before birth influences subsequent behavior, survival and reproduction in free-living mammals, using spotted hyenas in Kenya as model animals. Preliminary data suggest that androgens, like testosterone, may have opposing effects in female hyenas such that aggressiveness is enhanced while fertility is compromised. In this study, investigators will follow into adulthood cubs born to mothers with known concentrations of androgens during late pregnancy, and manipulate androgen concentrations to which young hyenas are exposed in the womb, to determine how long androgen-mediated effects endure, and whether prenatal hormone exposure influences survival and reproduction. This work will provide a novel and comprehensive picture of both immediate and long-term effects of early androgen exposure as the investigators follow focal hyenas from birth to adulthood, and closely monitor survival and reproduction in multiple generations. The results of this study will be important, not only for understanding the unique traits of spotted hyenas, but also for understanding more broadly the role of prenatal hormone exposure in the generation of natural variation in morphology and behavior, and the role of opposing androgen effects in the evolution of mammalian life histories. This research offers unique and highly valuable training opportunities for American students in an international environment. The investigators will also continue training Kenyan graduate students, supporting Masai students in rural elementary schools, working closely with the public media, maintaining their educational website, and giving many lectures each year to lay audiences. In addition, they will make core data from this long-term project available to other scientists and the general public through two web portals.

关于产前激素暴露对自然种群后代健康的影响知之甚少。因此，该项目的主要目标是确定出生前短暂暴露于不同浓度的雄性激素（雄激素）如何影响自由生活的哺乳动物随后的行为，生存和繁殖，使用肯尼亚的斑点鬣狗作为模型动物。初步数据表明，雄激素，如睾丸激素，可能对雌性鬣狗有相反的影响，例如攻击性增强，而生育能力受到损害。在这项研究中，研究人员将跟踪在怀孕后期具有已知雄激素浓度的母亲所生的成年幼崽，并操纵年轻鬣狗在子宫中暴露的雄激素浓度，以确定雄激素介导的作用持续多久，以及产前激素暴露是否影响生存和繁殖。这项工作将为早期雄激素暴露的直接和长期影响提供一个新的和全面的图片，因为研究人员从出生到成年跟踪局灶性鬣狗，并密切监测多代的生存和繁殖。这项研究的结果将是重要的，不仅为了解的独特特征的斑点鬣狗，但也更广泛地了解产前激素暴露在形态和行为的自然变异的产生中的作用，以及在哺乳动物生活史的进化中的作用，反对雄激素的影响。这项研究为美国学生在国际环境中提供了独特和非常有价值的培训机会。调查人员还将继续培训肯尼亚的研究生，支持农村小学的马赛学生，与公共媒体密切合作，维护他们的教育网站，并每年为普通观众举办许多讲座。此外，他们将通过两个门户网站向其他科学家和公众提供这一长期项目的核心数据。