Genetic and Developmental Influences on Infant Mouse Ultrasonic Calling. III. Patterns of Inheritance in the Calls of Mice 3?9 Days of Age

Abstract

Infant mice produce ultrasonic calls that may elicit retrieval by adult mice. Age-related differences and genetic effects, such as additivity and directional dominance, have been found for most call characteristics at 3 days of age. Significant maternal effects have been reported for calling rate. However, little is known about how the influence of these genetic effects changes with age. This study explored developmental-genetic patterns of inheritance of seven ultrasonic call characteristics at ages 3-9 days, from groups of mice derived from a complete 4 x 4 diallel cross. The results indicate that additive variance contributes significantly to all characteristics for all ages. Maternal effects have a small effect on call characteristics. Dominance effects decrease with age for rate, range, and length of calls, suggesting less selective pressure toward higher rates, greater range, and longer calls as pups become more competent thermoregulators.

Effects of Genetic Background, Gender, and Early Environmental Factors on Isolation-Induced Ultrasonic Calling in Mouse Pups: An Embryo-Transfer Study

“…This is in accordance with a bulk of observations of strain differences in the emission of ultrasonic vocalizations in mice (Bell et al 1972;Cohen-Salmon et al 1985;Hahn et al 1987Hahn et al , 1997Hahn et al , 1998Hahn and Schanz 2002;Hennessy et al 1980;Robinson and D'Udine 1982;Roubertoux et al 1996;Sales and Smith 1978;Thornton et al 2005), and adds to other differences between B6JOla and B6N.…”

“…Also, genetic analyses using reciprocal hybrids (Hahn et al 1987(Hahn et al , 1997(Hahn et al , 1998Hahn and Schanz 2002;Roubertoux et al 1996;Thornton et al 2005) revealed an influence of the genetic background on ultrasonic call emission; a finding, which is supported by studies on knockout mice. For instance, it was shown that several genes are involved in the production of ultrasonic vocalizations, especially Foxp2 (Shu et al 2005).…”

“…Apart from acute and short-term effects, however, there are also data suggesting that maternal behavior can have long-term effects on ultrasonic calling of pups during isolation. Such long-term effects were indicated by genetic analyses, where small but persistent maternal effects on call rate, duration, frequency, and frequency modulation were observed (Roubertoux et al 1996; Thornton et al 2005). A possible mechanism for maternal effects on ultrasonic calling was observed by D' Amato and Populin (1987) who found that call rate of normal mouse pups was reduced when reared by deaf mothers, indicating that the absence of an adequate response by the mothers can result in a reduction of calling behavior.…”

“…Within the species Mus musculus, inbred strain differences in call rate and call characteristics have been consistently observed (Bell et al 1972;Cohen-Salmon et al 1985;Hennessy et al 1980;Robinson and D'Udine 1982), and genetic studies have shown, in summary, that call rate and probably all acoustic call characteristics have a multiple genetic background (Hahn et al 1987(Hahn et al , 1997(Hahn et al , 1998Hahn and Schanz 2002;Roubertoux et al 1996; Thornton et al 2005). Ehret (2005) explained this observation by the fact that genes in three main areas of the infant development may affect ultrasonic vocalizations, namely genes, which contribute to the perceptual pathways of the nervous system that are responsible for the perception of the releasing stimuli, genes that are involved in the regulation of emotion and motivation, and genes that are linked to the anatomical properties of the breathing system and larynx.…”

Vocalizations in a Japanese wild-derived laboratory mouse KOR1: Development, behavioral contexts, and sound characteristics

“…3 bottom). This pattern is also seen in M. m. domesticus [2,11]. The mean peak frequency was about 75 kHz.…”