Female competition in wild house mice depends upon timing of female/male settlement and kinship between females

How does sex matter? Behavior, stress and animal models of neurobehavioral disorders

“…However, females appear to become aggressive after short periods of cohabitation with a male and direct attacks mostly towards other females (Palanza et al, 1994. The timing and context of aggression and its targets appear to differ in females and males, and the social organization of female mice appears to be more complex and variable than the clear-cut territorial dominance observed among males (Hurst, 1987;vom Saal et al, 1995;Palanza et al, 1996Palanza et al, , 2005; Clipperton Allen et al, 2010).…”

“…Wild-derived stocks of mice generally show high levels of intrasexual aggression and reproductive competition, both between males or females (vom Saal et al, 1995;Parmigiani et al, 1999;Palanza et al, 1996Palanza et al, , 2005. However, biomedical preclinical research is based on laboratory mouse strains, which derive from small founder populations and are the product of years of artificial selection, either deliberate or inadvertent, that selected specific traits reducing aggressive competition and promoting reproductive success under laboratory conditions (Jones and Brain, 1987).…”

The complex social environment of female house mice (Mus domesticus)

“…Nevertheless, choosing a familiar female for social cooperation may result in close association with kin. Incidences of female competition over reproduction, mainly expressed through overt aggression, reproductive inhibition of other females or infanticide of nonoffspring, on the other hand, have been typically described for unfamiliar and unrelated females (Hurst, 1987;König, 1994a;Palanza et al, 1996Palanza et al, , 2005.…”

Social communication in mice – Are there optimal cage conditions?

“…Mice are social animals using olfactory, visual, tactile and acoustic signals to communicate [4][5][6][7]. Acoustic signals are one of the easiest communication signal types to measure and quantify, and they are considered as a reliable proxy to model social communication deficits [8,9].…”

“…http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/011783 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Nov. 26, 2014; 2 Genetic studies of neuropsychiatric diseases led to the identification of several susceptibility genes for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) [1,2] or schizophrenia [3]. Mice remain one of the privileged mammalian animal models to study neuropsychiatric disorders, given the relative easiness of genetic modifications in this species.Mice are social animals using olfactory, visual, tactile and acoustic signals to communicate [4][5][6][7]. Acoustic signals are one of the easiest communication signal types to measure and quantify, and they are considered as a reliable proxy to model social communication deficits [8,9].…”