Abstract
Inbreeding depression is a well-documented phenomenon. In animals, one means of avoiding the costs of inbreeding is through the recognition and avoidance of kin as mates. Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) are short-lived, socially monogamous rodents that demonstrate inbreeding depression in the laboratory. Field data indicate that pair formation in nature is opportunistic but pairing among close relatives seems uncommon. We examined the role of relatedness and familiarity on prairie vole social associations and reproduction by placing adult voles into 0.1-ha enclosures with familiar siblings, unfamiliar siblings, and unrelated, unfamiliar conspecifics. Live-trapping data indicated that indices of social pair bonding were random with respect to relatedness and familiarity. Among females whose litters were sired by a single male, litters were significantly more likely to be sired by unfamiliar than familiar males, but the number of litters sired by males that were unrelated to their partner was not different from the number of litters sired by males that were related to their partner. Additionally, females that produced offspring with familiar siblings were significantly more likely to have litters with multiple paternity than females not producing offspring with familiar siblings. However, multiple paternity was not influenced by relatedness of sires. Finally, older individuals were more likely to produce offspring with each other than with younger individuals. Our findings suggest that prior association is a more important mechanism of inbreeding avoidance than phenotype matching for prairie voles mating under ecologically relevant conditions.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Lisa Aschemeier, Laura Brunkala, Stephen Jacquemin, and Denise Lentz for their assistance with the field work and DNA extractions. We thank Dr. John Hawes and the Miami University Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics for the assistance with genetic analyses. We also thank Rodney Kolb and the Miami University ERC staff for the logistical support and Dr. Charles Kwit, Dr. Karen Mabry, Dr. Doug Meikle, Dr. Ann Rypstra, Dr. Bob Schaefer, and our anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. Funding was provided through Miami University’s Field Workshop program (to KEL).
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Lucia, K.E., Keane, B. A field test of the effects of familiarity and relatedness on social associations and reproduction in prairie voles. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 66, 13–27 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1247-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1247-6