Meeting Abstract
Many female small mammals, such as meadow voles, Microtus pennsylvanicus , may face limited food availability during behavioral estrus, pregnancy, postpartum estrus and lactation. The amount of food that is available to these females may influence their behavior and reproductive success. We examined the effects of nutritional stress on aspects of the behavior of female meadow voles in different reproductive states, including behavioral estrus, pregnancy, postpartum estrus and lactation. In doing so, we also examined if nutritional stress faced by dams affected the phenotype of their offspring. We found that 6 hours of food deprivation (FD) was sufficient to decrease the sexual behaviors of female voles in behavioral estrus relative to female voles that did not face FD. Next, we discovered female voles that were food deprived (FD) or food restricted (FR) during late pregnancy became sexually less receptive and produced scent marks that were no longer as attractive to male voles on the first day of lactation (the onset of postpartum estrus) compared to that of pregnant female voles that were not FD or FR during late gestation. FD and FR pregnant female voles did not enter postpartum estrus (PPE), whereas, control females did enter PPE. We also found that FR during lactation caused dams to spend less time engaged in maternal behavior compared to control dams. Dams that were FR during days 8-14 of lactation displayed the most pronounced decline in maternal behavior relative to dams that were FR during days 1-7 or days 15-21 of lactation. In addition, FR 8-14 dams reared offspring that had lower body mass at weaning and at sexual maturity and had deficits in sexual behavior as adults. Thus, FD and FR can affect the phenotype of adult female voles and induce similar deficits in their offspring. These persistent effects may affect the fitness of individuals within a population and the demography of that population.
