title: Effects of quinestrol on the vocal behavior of mice during courtship interactions.
abstract: Vocalizations are a crucial part of courtship and mating in a wide variety of species. Mating behavior, including courtship calls, is modulated by sex steroid hormones. Male mice produce courtship ultrasonic vocalizations to attract females during heterosexual encounters. However, rare is the knowledge on whether vocal behavior of mice changes under sterilant treatment which will affect gonadal hormone levels. In the present study, we treat male mice with quinestrol, which interferes with the release of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and has a significant anti-fertility effect in rodents. We compared the differences in the syllable structures (including peak intensity, peak frequency, duration, and bandwidth), total number of calls, and harmonic syllable proportions between quinestrol treated and control male mice. Male mice treated with quinestrol produced more courtship calls and more harmonic syllables than control mice, whereas the parameters of call syllables showed no significant change between the two groups. The results indicate that normal male vocal behavior during sexual interactions could be retained or even reinforced after quinestrol treatment. In addition, female mice approached male mice treated with quinestrol more than control mice, suggesting that the treated male mice were more attractive to the female mice than the controls. Thus, competitive reproductive interference is enhanced. Further, findings provided behavior mechanism in vocal context of the fertility control in mice.
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, 510260 Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, 510260 Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Qian-Qian
authors.initials: QQ
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, 510260 Guangzhou, China; State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management for Pest Insects and Rodents, 100101 Beijing, China. Electronic address: liuqs@giabr.gd.cn.
authors.forename: Quan-Sheng
authors.initials: QS
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D003380:Courtship; D004967:Estrogens / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D011800:Quinestrol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D004967:Estrogens; D011800:Quinestrol
keywords: Courtship behavior; Mice; Quinestrol; Ultrasonic vocalizations