Regulation of puberty and its consequences on population dynamics of mice

Abstract

Changes in generation time can have a major impact on population dynamics in small, rapidly breeding rodents. The onset of puberty in female house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) can vary from the age of 4 wk to 8 wk as a function of male acceleratory or female inhibitory urinary pheromones in laboratory experiments. In field studies, puberty inhibition has been demonstrated to vary directly with natural and experimental increases in population density. A model is developed suggesting that the sexual maturation of juvenile females residing in a dense population is inhibited by a pheromone produced by crowded females.The signal among females in a dense population seems to be mediated by the vomeronasal organ. © 1987 by the American Society of Zoologists.