Variations in maternal care associated with differences in female rat reproductive behavior in a group‐mating environment

Abstract

Maternal care influences the development of sexual behavior in pair mating rats, under laboratory conditions. This study examined the effect of variations in maternal care in a group-mating condition. Groups of two low and two high licking/grooming (LG) female offspring mated with two males in a large pacing chamber for 36 hr. Sexual behaviors were scored for the first 15 vaginal-cervical stimulations (VCS) and the entire 36 hr. Low LG females spent more time mating, required more time to receive an intromission after entering the male compartment. They also received more ejaculations compared to high LG females during the first 15 VCS. This difference disappeared as mating continued. Males were more responsive to high than low females. No pregnancy rate difference was seen between the two female phenotypes, demonstrating that variation in maternal care received results in two mating strategies that are both reproductively successful under group-mating conditions.

Epigenetics of Reproduction

“…[271][272][273] Females that receive low levels of LG as pups attain puberty earlier than females from high LG dams. 275 Over the duration of the test, both types of females received equivalent mating and there were no differences in pregnancy outcomes. 274 In group mating tests, adult female offspring from high LG dams received fewer ejaculations initially as compared with offspring of low LG mothers.…”

Can low-level ethanol exposure during pregnancy influence maternal care? An investigation using two strains of rat across two generations

“…Maternal behaviors of lactating dams towards their pups were blindly scored by well-trained observers daily as initially described by Myers et al 1989 [52] and adapted and regularly used in our laboratory [27–31]. Observations occurred three times in the light cycle (1030, 1300, and 1700 h) and twice during the dark cycle (0700 and 2000 h), during 75-minute observation periods for the first 6 postnatal days (PND 1 – PND 6).…”

“…The effects of maternal behavior on infant development persist to maturity and influence the offspring’s phenotype. More specifically, lower levels of maternal licking/grooming (LG) result in early onset of puberty [27, 28], increase stress reactivity [33], influence reproductive strategy [29, 31, 33, 34], and increase alcohol self-administration [35]. Furthermore, maternal behavior has been shown to be transmitted across generations through epigenetic modification, such that female rats that have received low level of maternal care will also provide low levels of maternal care to their offspring [36, 37] Thus, maternal care in the rodent has a large impact on the offspring outcome.…”

Maternal care‐related differences in males and females rats’ sensitivity to ethanol and the associations between the GABAergic system and steroids in males

“…Each dam was observed for maternal care behavior, which was scored, every 3 min, for 75 min (25 scores) in each of the five daily sessions from PND 1 through PND 6 totaling to 750 (5 sessions × 25 scores for 6 days) observations per litter. Licking and grooming (LG) was scored by well-trained observers as initially described by Myers, Brunelli, Shair, Squire, & Hofer (1989) and adapted by our laboratory as previously reported (Borrow et al, 2013;Popoola et al, 2015;Prior, Meaney, & Cameron, 2013). Daily observation sessions occurred three times during the light cycle (1030, 1300, and 1700 hr) and twice during the dark cycle (0700 and 2000 hr).…”