Why Do Male House Mice Have Such Small Testes?
- 1 January 2009
- journal article
- Published by Zoological Society of Japan in Zoological Science
- Vol. 26 (1), 17-23
- https://doi.org/10.2108/zsj.26.17
Abstract
We studied testes size in free-living and laboratory-born commensal and non-commensal populations of various Mus species (M. musculus musculus, M. m. domesticus, M. spicilegus, M. spretus, M. macedonicus, and laboratory mice). We found no apparent differences between wild-caught and laboratory-born individuals, or among commensal, non-commensal, and laboratory populations of M. musculus. There were, however, considerable differences among the species studied. The highest values of relative testes size were found in the aboriginal species M. spicilegus (4.4% and 2.9% for wild and laboratory populations, respectively), followed by those of M. macedonicus (from 1.7% to 0.9% for various samples) and M. spretus (1.5%). All thirteen samples representing various populations of Mus musculus exhibited smaller testes (0.7-1.0%), and finally the three lowest mean values came from laboratory mice (0.5-0.7%). It is very surprising that aboriginal species, in particular M. spicilegus, which is widely considered to be monogamous, have relatively larger testes than the polygynous/promiscuous M. musculus. This result is in apparent contradiction to the current views on evolutionary forces affecting testes size, and suggests that there could be another uncontrolled factor obscuring the relationship between testes size and multiple paternity. This raises a question concerning the proper interpretation of social organisation in the genus Mus.Keywords
This publication has 57 references indexed in Scilit:
- Evolutionary trade-off between weapons and testesProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006
- Sperm competition enhances functional capacity of mammalian spermatozoaProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006
- The frequency of multiple paternity suggests that sperm competition is common in house mice (Mus domesticus)Molecular Ecology, 2006
- Mitochondrial DNA variation in the western house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) close to its site of origin: studies in TurkeyBiological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2005
- Molecular phylogeny of the genus Mus (Rodentia: Murinae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear dataBiological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2005
- Is the socio-spatial distribution of mound-building mice, Mus spicilegus, compatible with a monogamous mating system ?Mammalia, 2003
- Mitochondrial DNA and chromosomal studies of wild mice (Mus) from Turkey and IranHeredity, 2000
- Mating patterns in seminatural populations of mice influenced by MHC genotypeNature, 1991
- The Reproductive Ecology of the House MouseThe Quarterly Review of Biology, 1979
- Mate selection—A selection for a handicapJournal of Theoretical Biology, 1975