Pre-breeding food restriction promotes the optimization of parental investment in house mice, Mus musculus.

ABSTRACT: Litter size is one of the most reliable state-dependent life-history traits that indicate parental investment in polytocous (litter-bearing) mammals. The tendency to optimize litter size typically increases with decreasing availability of resources during the period of parental investment. To determine whether this tactic is also influenced by resource limitations prior to reproduction, we examined the effect of experimental, pre-breeding food restriction on the optimization of parental investment in lactating mice. First, we investigated the optimization of litter size in 65 experimental and 72 control families (mothers and their dependent offspring). Further, we evaluated pre-weaning offspring mortality, and the relationships between maternal and offspring condition (body weight), as wel

SUBMITTER: Dusek A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5362082 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature