Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Jourjine, Nicholas
• Woolfolk, Maya L.
• Sanguinetti-Scheck, Juan I.
• Sabatini, John E.
• McFadden, Sade
• Lindholm, Anna K.
• Hoekstra, Hopi E.

Titel

Two pup vocalization types are genetically and functionally separable in deer mice

Ist Teil von

• Current biology, 2023-04, Vol.33 (7), p.1237-1248.e4

Ort / Verlag

England: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Vocalization is a widespread social behavior in vertebrates that can affect fitness in the wild. Although many vocal behaviors are highly conserved, heritable features of specific vocalization types can vary both within and between species, raising the questions of why and how some vocal behaviors evolve. Here, using new computational tools to automatically detect and cluster vocalizations into distinct acoustic categories, we compare pup isolation calls across neonatal development in eight taxa of deer mice (genus Peromyscus) and compare them with laboratory mice (C57BL6/J strain) and free-living, wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus). Whereas both Peromyscus and Mus pups produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), Peromyscus pups also produce a second call type with acoustic features, temporal rhythms, and developmental trajectories that are distinct from those of USVs. In deer mice, these lower frequency “cries” are predominantly emitted in postnatal days one through nine, whereas USVs are primarily made after day 9. Using playback assays, we show that cries result in a more rapid approach by Peromyscus mothers than USVs, suggesting a role for cries in eliciting parental care early in neonatal development. Using a genetic cross between two sister species of deer mice exhibiting large, innate differences in the acoustic structure of cries and USVs, we find that variation in vocalization rate, duration, and pitch displays different degrees of genetic dominance and that cry and USV features can be uncoupled in second-generation hybrids. Taken together, this work shows that vocal behavior can evolve quickly between closely related rodent species in which vocalization types, likely serving distinct functions in communication, are controlled by distinct genetic loci. [Display omitted] •Deer mouse pups produce two types of isolation-induced calls: USVs and cries•Wild and C57BL6/J Mus musculus pups produce isolation-induced USVs but not cries•Deer mouse cries elicit significantly faster maternal approach than USVs•Distinct genetic loci contribute to interspecific variation in USVs versus cries Using unsupervised clustering algorithms, Jourjine et al. identify two isolation calls in neonatal deer mice (genus Peromyscus): ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) and lower frequency cries. They characterize the evolution of these pup calls in eight closely related taxa and show that USVs and cries are both functionally and genetically distinct.