Urinary chemosignals and puberty in female house mice: effects of photoperiod and food deprivation.
Urinary chemosignals from male and female house mice alter the age of puberty in females and thus influence the onset of reproductive behavior. These chemosignal phenomena have been examined with respect to a variety of factors pertaining to the social and reproductive biology of the mice. The pair of experiments reported here tested whether two non-social, environmental factors might affect the presence of the chemosignals. Alteration in the photoperiod from the normal 12 hr light/day to 6 hr light/day and restricting food intake every other day significantly altered some of the chemosignal effects on puberty for urine from singly-caged adult male and female mice, but did not change the delay of puberty produced by treatment with urine from grouped females. The results conform with a general hypothesis that the urinary chemosignals in house mice that influence puberty in young females are effective in communicating the adequacy of conditions for reproduction to conspecifics.
D000818:Animals; D004780:Environment, Controlled; D004971:Estrus; D005260:Female; D005508:Food Deprivation / Q000502:physiology*; D008027:Light; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D011247:Pregnancy; D012741:Sexual Maturation; D014556:Urine