[Studies on the pheromonal pregnancy block in the mouse. II. Discriminatory and/or memorial mechanisms in female mice responding to the stud male].
The present study was carried out to examine whether the stud male strain have a blocking effect on the pregnancy in stud female. Four inbred mouse strains, C3H, C57BL/6, BALB/c and CBA, were used in these experiments. Virgin female mice were caged together with a male of a different strain at 10-20 weeks of age for copulation. The mated females were removed from the male, and housed with a male strange or alien from the stud male. The "Bruce effect" was evident in C3H, BALB/c and CBA strains, but not in C57BL/6. It was shown in the strains having the "Bruce effect" that pregnancy block occurred if the strange male was of a strain different from the stud male. Further experiments were designed to examine whether the "Bruce effect" might depend on imprinting or memory in a stud female by preproximity to a strange or alien male before stud mating. In this experiment, the "Bruce effect" did not occur in BALB/c or CBA strain by "imprinting" from preproximity to the strange or alien male, except for BALB/c males. From these findings, it was suggested that the discrimination or memory must play a leading role in the "Bruce effect" in that the female was able to recognize her own stud male.
D000818:Animals; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C / Q000502:physiology; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H / Q000502:physiology; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA / Q000502:physiology; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains / Q000502:physiology*; D010675:Pheromones / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D013045:Species Specificity
D010675:Pheromones