In Mice, Promiscuous Moms Produce Sexier Males?
Medical News Today has a brief article
reporting on a journal article in PNAS
about the epigenetics of promiscuity in mice1. Essentially, the researchers separated mice
into two groups. One group was forced to
live as monogamous couples whereas the second group was allowed to have
unfettered social interaction so that they could mate with multiple partners. Then, the scientists checked to see how “attractive”
the male offspring of each group was1.
So,
how does one tell how “sexy” or “attractive” a male mouse is? You check for pheromones. An example of a
pheromone that increases female sexual behavior in mice is the pheromone ESP12. When the researchers checked
the male progeny’s pheromone levels, the offspring from the promiscuous mothers
had produced 31% more pheromones than their counterparts from the monogamous
group. But there was a downside to this
sexiness…the attractive male mice did not live as long as their homelier counterparts. The scientists report that only 48% of the
offspring of the promiscuous group survived the entire experiment whereas 80%
of the monogamous couples’ male offspring survived1. The links to the articles can be found below:
1. Nelson AC,
Cauceglia JW, Merkley SD, et al. Reintroducing domesticated wild mice to
sociality induces adaptive transgenerational effects on MUP expression. Proc
Natl Acad Sci. 2013. doi:10.1073/pnas.1310427110.
2. Haga
S, Hattori T, Sato T, et al. The male mouse pheromone ESP1 enhances female
sexual receptive behaviour through a specific vomeronasal receptor. Nature.
2010;466(7302):118–122. doi:10.1038/nature09142.
Please note that I have had some issues with the second hyperlink. The PNAS hyperlink is not always working and is sometimes slow.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am not a proponent of Darwinian evolution I could not help but think of the ideas of survival of the fittest as I read the article. It was interesting to see that what would be considered a better trait ie. "sexyness" in the long run did not give the males that generated more phermones a better surviva advantage. In fact they were found to have a higher morbidity rate than the male offsprings that came from monogamous parents. It was even more interesting because I could relate the findings back to human life and the nature of sin.
ReplyDeleteThis article was extremely interesting. The effects of epigenetics are clear and apparent. Promiscuous mothers desire promiscuous sons so that they can mate frequently. Promiscuous fathers desire less promiscuous sons so that they have less competition. I wondered how they ruled out that the various mice did not have genetic predispositions that led their offspring toward promiscuity or the reverse. I also wondered how further research into epigenetics might affect the theory of evolution. How do epigenetics play a role in natural selection? Also, I believe epigenetics could someday be vital to the ensuring the proper development of human fetuses.
ReplyDeleteGood find! This article is interesting and hilarious! I am not sure if they can extrapolate famished parents to produce potential obese progeny, but it makes sense that the "peacocks" had a shorter lifespan. I wish they did a study to see if it did apply to humans. Would it not be interesting to see if "sexy" humans had a shorter lifespan due to their unfortunate sexiness? This brings a whole new meaning to "if looks could kill."
ReplyDeleteAnother question I had while reading this was, can "sexiness" be narrowed down to just pheromones? Maybe for mice, but for humans too? If it were true, then love potions could be developed, and we all know the problems associated with those. I enjoyed the researcher's comment on studying humans: "We do not plan on working on humans, but numerous investigators work in this area and the perfume industry is always trying to discover new irresistible scents." So I guess he doesn't want a share in Axe or Chanel No. 1.
That is absolutely bizarre! First of all, who comes up with this stuff? Second of all, how in the world does that kind of study get funding? They must have some killer spokespeople. Seriously though, this is very intriguing. Talk about generational curses. Although rather bizarre, this study does have some great insight into epigenetics.
ReplyDeleteA promiscuous mother produces more attractive males that produce more pheromones; however, they live for shorter periods of time. A promiscuous father produces less attractive males with less than normal pheromone output. Perhaps the female mice that are promiscuous have higher levels or estrogen or secrete more hormones during their pregnancy that play into the increased pheromone activity in their children. This would explain why female mice produce more attractive males, whereas promiscuous male mice do not. Whether this is the case or it is much more complicated, it will take many more studies to really understand what is going on genetically. This topic of epigenetics definitely has some very crucial scientific implications.
I wonder if they will begin testing these things with humans in the near future. This type of study could definitely be done on humans ethically through surveying participants and measuring general attractiveness/pheromone output of their offspring. I’m just curious how this will effect future generations. We tend to play the “blame game” and avoid taking responsibility for our actions, so will this give us a “scientific basis” to do so? It is an interesting thing to think about.
This was definitely something that can be thrown in the "interesting" category. It is pretty weird to think of a scientist calling mice sexy, but whatever floats their boat. The whole story is a good study if you are looking to reproduce mice that need to live for a longer period of time and also the way certain chemicals work in the mice bodies. When speaking of future studies, I don't think humans are the way to go. The ethical implications could quite possibly be disastrous. Doing an experiment would not be a good route to go, and if they were to do a survey they would have to wait a long time for the patients to die. So both ways don't seem beneficial, just a nuisance. It will be interesting to see how perfume companies come up with new ways to allure their customers, especially if they do so according to this study.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting study, and I have to wonder what the approval committee was thinking when they okayed this “sexy mice” study. Did any of the researchers take a personal interest in the results? Were any of the people involved secretly wishing to upregulate pheromone production? We may never know the real intentions of this study, but the results are fascinating: mice produced by polygamous mouse mothers had much greater levels of major urinary proteins (MUP’s) than mice from monogamous mothers. This result makes sense in the light of genetic variation, although I’d be interested to see how this works at the genomic level. It’s strange that these “sexy mice” lived shorter lifespans due to the strenuous effects of keeping up appearances. I’m glad they’re not planning this research on humans (although I’m sure there’d be plenty of volunteers). The finding that ESP1 pheromone makes use of a certain vomeronasal receptor carries huge importance for the cologne/perfume industry. Perfect implementation of this phenomenon would definitely increase cost (and effectiveness) of many beauty products.
ReplyDeleteWow, this is a very interesting article. Although the researcher said that they do not plan on doing human testing, I can't help but wonder what the results of a human test like this would be like. Would men than come from promiscuous mothers be sexier? Would men that come from monogamous mothers live longer? It's interesting to think about.. but ethically I'm not sure it would be right to test on humans. It's crazy that the male mice with promiscuous mothers produce MUPs that were 31% higher than male mice with monogamous mothers. That is a really high number! It's also strange that male mice with promiscuous fathers had 5% less pheromones than mice with monogamous fathers. It's interesting that the mother has to be promiscuous in order to have "sexier" offspring, but the father can't. Overall this is a very interesting article, and kind of a funny, but fascinating experiment.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a very interesting finding! It seems that quite a bit of recent studies have been focused on how environmental effects of parents (mothers, in particular) affect their offspring. The question of nature vs. nurture always comes into play with these types of studies. It's interesting that they determined the amount of pheromones each mouse produced as a measure of attractiveness. We could do that with humans in beauty pageants; it certainly would make the judging less subjective! The correlation of less promiscuous parents producing offspring that outlive those of more promiscuous parents is very unexpected. I wonder why that occurs and if it would be seen again if the experiment were repeated.
ReplyDeleteIn sophomore year I took General Genetics. While I vaguely remember the details of what we covered in that class, I do remember that we discussed the effects of epigenetic regulation. At 7 am, Dr. Schraw would take the time to explain how changes in the way DNA is wrapped around histones and whether or not it is phosphorylated or methylated can affect an organism's phenotypic characteristics, and I, like many of my peers, would sit there wondering why we needed to know this. Or in what conversations we would ever need to use information about something as microscopic as DNA and how it interacts with proteins? At that time of the day, these concepts were honestly just information that I had to memorize to get an "A" on my next test. In reading this article, however, and seeing these ideas come into play in real experiments, I have come to appreciate what we learn a lot more. I now understand that the materials we are exposed to, whether it's the basics of biology and chemistry or the complexities of embryology, microbiology, or chemistry of cancer, actually matter in the real world of science, health, and technology. They are not just a bunch of facts to memorize, or formulas to use, or Latin medical terms to know, but also frameworks for research and discoveries that could change human lives and help us be better stewards of the world God has given to us. After seeing this connection, I am determined to change my perspective on the classes I am in right now, and to never take any of it for granted again.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePersonal value and respect for marriage seem to have decreased throughout time to this day. It seems as if less people are getting married but are receiving the benefits with loose ties – essentially increasing individual’s promiscuity, as the mice from the study. This article posts a bold outlook onto what could potentially occur to society – shorter and shorter life spans for the children of those who maintain such loose ties (although medical technology can balance out the deficit).
ReplyDeleteIn order to include some faith integration, Mark 10:6-9 makes it understood that monogamous marriages are the way to go – a husband and wife become one.(1) If the outcomes of this experiment are compared to humans, then it may be understood that the Lord mandates one husband and one wife in a matrimony to allow the following generations to live decent lengths of time, as compared to the offspring of others who do not keep themselves to only one other individual.
1. NLT Bible.
I found this study to be very interesting. Promiscuous mothers producing more attractive sons, how interesting. I also thought that is was interesting that the offspring did not live as long if they were born from the promiscuous mothers. It is almost as if it is a consequence for the action. I wonder if this translates to human promiscuity at all.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that the more "attractive" mice did not live as long as the less attractive offspring. I also was unaware that pheromones have so much to do with attractiveness. This article just goes to show that looks are not everything. The article proves that there are more important factors, such as survival skills.
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely an interesting and informative topic. I am well pleased that the research study was able to shed more light on epigenetics and show how environmental conditions, not changes in the DNA, experienced by parents, can modify the genes and influence the characteristics of their offspring, either positively or negatively. These findings may be very helpful for programs attempting to breed endangered species in captivity. It could be assumed that confining such animals in social groups rather than in lone pairs might increase their ability to reproduce later when released into the wild.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting article! Something I wonder however, is about the pheromones of the mother. If she had above than average attraction with regards to her pheromones, it would allow her to both be promiscuous as well as to pass on that attractiveness genetically to her offspring.
ReplyDeleteIt is always interesting to see how different environmental conditions can modify how genes display certain characteristics in offspring. To me it is so interesting to find out how different phenotypes can be changed by DNA expression. I also think this is dangerous reasearch. As Amanda stated earlier in the comments. The day and age we live in is becoming more and more about being permiscuous. Research like this makes me think that society will just continue to take a step back and continue to take more and more meaning away from marriage. It is a sad trend but if research like this continues then so will the trend.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting topic to research, promiscuous mothers producing more attractive sons. I find the nature vs. nurture argument apparent in this experiment. It's always interesting to hear of research done involving parents and their offspring. Overall, a very bizarre yet interesting topic (as most are).
ReplyDeleteAlthough odd, this topic does have some interesting points. For example, environmental changes change the genetics of the offspring, when usually this is strictly looked at through DNA. I too found it interesting that the monogamous mice lived longer than the others. I guess my only question would be how they could use this information about epigenetics for future studies.
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