Water availability affects reproduction in deer mice.
Water restriction impaired sperm production in deer mice, a seasonally breeding mammal that encounters aperiodic droughts in its natural habitat throughout North America. Water-induced spermatogenic responses were sorted into three categories based upon epididymal sperm numbers: aspermic, oligospermic, and euspermic. Average gonadal mass was reduced after 10 wk of limited water consumption. Inter-individual variation in gonadal response to a simulated drought was similar to phenotypic differences in reproductive function in response to other environmental cues that direct annual reproductive cycles. Our findings suggest that water availability may act as a cue to suppress gametogenesis in deer mice independently from food, temperature, and day length.
Nelson
R J
RJ
Department of Zoology, University of Texas, Austin 78712-1064.
Desjardins
C
C
D000818:Animals; D008297:Male; D010542:Peromyscus / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012098:Reproduction; D013076:Sperm Count; D013091:Spermatogenesis; D013737:Testis / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D014868:Water Deprivation