Consequences of prenatal androgen exposure for the reproductive performance of female pheasants (Phasianus colchicus).

ABSTRACT: Maternal hormones in vertebrate eggs can mediate important forms of maternal effects. However, the function of hormone transfer to the eggs is still debated, especially because long-term fitness consequences have been little studied. We investigated the effect of prenatal exposure to physiologically elevated yolk testosterone (T) levels on reproduction of female pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) in captivity. We found that females hatching from T-injected eggs (T-females) had a lower egg-laying rate than controls, and their eggs were more frequently infertile than those laid by control females. There were no effects of prenatal maternal treatment on egg size and yolk T concentration, but eggs carrying a female embryo laid by T-females had smaller yolks than eggs with a male embryo, while the

SUBMITTER: Rubolini D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1679874 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature