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Brown rats and house mice eavesdrop on each other's volatile sex pheromone components.

ABSTRACT: Mammalian pheromones often linger in the environment and thus are particularly susceptible to interceptive eavesdropping, commonly understood as a one-way dyadic interaction, where prey sense and respond to the scent of a predator. Here, we tested the "counterespionage" hypothesis that predator and prey co-opt each other's pheromone as a cue to locate prey or evade predation. We worked with wild brown rats (predator of mice) and wild house mice (prey of brown rats) as model species, testing their responses to pheromone-baited traps at infested field sites. The treatment trap in each of two trap pairs per replicate received sex attractant pheromone components (including testosterone) of male mice or male rats, whereas corresponding control traps received only testosterone, a pheromone component shared between mouse and rat males. Trap pairs disseminating male rat pheromone components captured 3.05 times fewer mice than trap pairs disseminating male mouse pheromone components, and no female mice were captured in rat pheromone-baited traps, indicating predator aversion. Indiscriminate captures of rats in trap pairs disseminating male rat or male mouse pheromone components, and fewer captures of rats in male mouse pheromone traps than in (testosterone-only) control traps indicate that rats do eavesdrop on the male mouse sex pheromone but do not exploit the information for mouse prey location. The counterespionage hypothesis is supported by trap catch data of both mice and rats but only the mice data are in keeping with our predictions for motive of the counterespionage.

SUBMITTER: Varner E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7572391 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Brown rats and house mice eavesdrop on each other's volatile sex pheromone components.

Varner Elana E Jackson Hanna H Mahal Manveer M Takács Stephen S Gries Regine R Gries Gerhard G

Scientific reports 20201019 1

Mammalian pheromones often linger in the environment and thus are particularly susceptible to interceptive eavesdropping, commonly understood as a one-way dyadic interaction, where prey sense and respond to the scent of a predator. Here, we tested the "counterespionage" hypothesis that predator and prey co-opt each other's pheromone as a cue to locate prey or evade predation. We worked with wild brown rats (predator of mice) and wild house mice (prey of brown rats) as model species, testing thei ...[more]

PMID: 33077874

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Project description:IntroductionThe incidence of acute pancreatitis (AP) and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) are growing worldwide. Several studies have confirmed that obesity (OB), hyperlipidemia (HL), or diabetes mellitus (DM) can increase severity, mortality, and complications in AP. However, there is no comprehensive information on the independent or joint effect of MetS components on the outcome of AP. Our aims were (1) to understand whether the components of MetS have an independent effect on the outcome of AP and (2) to examine the joint effect of their combinations.MethodsFrom 2012 to 2017, 1435 AP cases from 28 centers were included in the prospective AP Registry. Patient groups were formed retrospectively based on the presence of OB, HL, DM, and hypertension (HT). The primary endpoints were mortality, severity, complications of AP, and length of hospital stay. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated.Results1257 patients (55.7 ± 17.0 years) were included in the analysis. The presence of OB was an independent predictive factor for renal failure [OR: 2.98 (CI: 1.33-6.66)] and obese patients spent a longer time in hospital compared to non-obese patients (12.1 vs. 10.4 days, p = 0.008). HT increased the risk of severe AP [OR: 3.41 (CI: 1.39-8.37)], renal failure [OR: 7.46 (CI: 1.61-34.49)], and the length of hospitalization (11.8 vs. 10.5 days, p = 0.020). HL increased the risk of local complications [OR: 1.51 (CI: 1.10-2.07)], renal failure [OR: 6.4 (CI: 1.93-21.17)], and the incidence of newly diagnosed DM [OR: 2.55 (CI: 1.26-5.19)]. No relation was found between the presence of DM and the outcome of AP. 906 cases (mean age ± SD: 56.9 ± 16.7 years) had data on all four components of MetS available. The presence of two, three, or four MetS factors increased the incidence of an unfavorable outcome compared to patients with no MetS factors.ConclusionOB, HT, and HL are independent risk factors for a number of complications. HT is an independent risk factor for severity as well. Components of MetS strongly synergize each other's detrimental effect. It is important to search for and follow up on the components of MetS in AP.

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Brown rats and house mice eavesdrop on each other's volatile sex pheromone components.

Publications

Brown rats and house mice eavesdrop on each other's volatile sex pheromone components.

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