A possible role for the thyroid in reproductive inhibition in laboratory populations of the prairie deermouse (Peromyscus maniculatus).
Serum thyroxine concentrations were determined and found to be reduced in reproductively inhibited deermice selected from controlled growth laboratory populations. Daily injections of 1 microgram thyroxine in reproductively inhibited male deermice were shown to significantly increase testis weight and the number of spermatids with acrosome formation. Daily feeding of thyroxine to a controlled growth population promoted an increase in the mean weights of the reproductive organs of both sexes that was intermediate between reproductively inhibited and capable deermice. Also, two females in the population produced the first surviving young after 250 days of inhibition.
D000311:Adrenal Glands / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size; D010053:Ovary / Q000502:physiology; D010542:Peromyscus / Q000502:physiology*; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012098:Reproduction; D012669:Seminal Vesicles / Q000502:physiology; D013737:Testis / Q000502:physiology; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000502:physiology*; D013974:Thyroxine / Q000097:blood; D014599:Uterus / Q000502:physiology
D013974:Thyroxine