Sex-dependent control of pheromones on social organization within groups of wild house mice.

ABSTRACT: Dominance hierarchy is a fundamental social phenomenon in a wide range of mammalian species, critically affecting fitness and health. Here, we investigate the role of pheromone signals in the control of social hierarchies and individual personalities within groups of wild mice. For this purpose, we combine high-throughput behavioral phenotyping with computational tools in freely interacting groups of wild house mice, males and females, in an automated, semi-natural system. We show that wild mice form dominance hierarchies in both sexes but use sex-specific strategies, displaying distinct male-typical and female-typical behavioral personalities that were also associated with social ranking. Genetic disabling of VNO-mediated pheromone detection generated opposite behavioral effects within gr

SUBMITTER: Zilkha N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10132349 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature