Papers by Kerstin Thonhauser
Laboratory Animals
Surgical embryo transfer in mice is a key technique in assisted reproduction and applied for diff... more Surgical embryo transfer in mice is a key technique in assisted reproduction and applied for different purposes in biomedical research. Due to its frequent application in rodent facilities across the world, further improvement of the procedure can substantially contribute to fulfil the principles of the 3Rs. Here, we investigated the effect of bilateral and unilateral left- or right-sided oviduct transfers on the success of embryo transfers. In total, we performed 223 embryo transfers (56 unilateral left, 56 unilateral right, 111 bilateral), in which we transferred 10–14 two-cell embryos each. We found that the type of transfer significantly influenced both the pregnancy rate of recipients and the survival rate of transferred embryos. Bilateral transfers yielded higher pregnancy and survival rates than left-sided unilateral transfers. Right-sided unilateral transfers yielded higher pregnancy rates than left-sided unilateral transfers and did not differ in embryo survival rates from ...
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Ambient temperature is an important non-biotic environmental factor influencing immunological and... more Ambient temperature is an important non-biotic environmental factor influencing immunological and oncological parameters in laboratory mice. It is under discussion which temperature is more appropriate and whether the commonly used room temperature in rodent facilities of about 21°C represents a chronic cold stress or the 30°C of the thermoneutral zone constitutes heat stress for the animals. In this study we selected the physiological challenging period of lactation to investigate the influence of a cage temperature of 20°C, 25°C, and 30°C, respectively, on reproductive performance and stress hormone levels in two frequently used mouse strains. We found that more pups were weaned from B6D2F1 hybrids compared to C57BL/6N mothers and that the number of weaned pups was strongly reduced if mothers of both strains were kept at 30°C. Furthermore, at 30°C mothers and pups showed reduced body weight at weaning and offspring had longer tails. Despite pronounced temperature effects on reprod...
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Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2012
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Females often show multi-male mating (MMM), but the adaptive functions are unclear. We tested whe... more Females often show multi-male mating (MMM), but the adaptive functions are unclear. We tested whether female house mice (Mus musculus musculus) show MMM when they can choose their mates without male coercion. We released 32 females into separate enclosures where they could choose to mate with two neighboring males that were restricted to their own territories. We also tested whether females increase MMM when the available males appeared unable to exclude intruders from their territories. To manip-ulate territorial intrusion, we introduced scent-marked tiles from the neighboring males into males ' territories, or we rearranged tiles within males ' own territories as a control. Each female was tested in treatment and control conditions and we conducted paternity analyses on the 57 litters pro-duced. We found that 46 % of litters were multiply sired, indicating that multiple paternity is common when females can choose their mates. Intrusion did not increase multiple paternity...
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Polyandrie ist eine sehr haufig vorkommende Paarungsstrategie im Tierreich, deren evolutionarer U... more Polyandrie ist eine sehr haufig vorkommende Paarungsstrategie im Tierreich, deren evolutionarer Ursprung sehr umstritten ist. Weibchen sind in ihrer Fitness durch die Anzahl ihrer Eizellen und nicht durch die Anzahl der Geschlechtspartner beschrankt und da multiple Verpaarungen erhebliche Kosten mit sich bringen, wie zum Beispiel ein erhohtes Risiko an sexuell ubertragbaren Krankheiten oder ein erhohter Raubdruck, stellt sich die Frage, warum sich Weibchen mit mehreren Mannchen verpaaren. Ziel meiner Dissertation war es, Polyandrie bei Hausmausen (Mus musculus musculus) zu untersuchen und zu testen welche Fitnessvorteile Weibchen durch eine solche Paarungsstrategie erhalten konnen. Ich habe die Haufigkeit von multiplen Vaterschaften in wilden Wurfen bestimmt und festgestellt, dass 29% dieser Wurfe von mehreren Vatern gezeugt wurden. Diese Rate ist mit jener von wild lebenden Mus musculus domesticus vergleichbar. Unabhangig von der Wurfgrose zeigten genetische Untersuchungen, dass di...
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Scientific Reports
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Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 2016
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Journal of evolutionary biology, Jan 7, 2016
It has been suggested that polyandry allows females to increase offspring genetic diversity and r... more It has been suggested that polyandry allows females to increase offspring genetic diversity and reduce the prevalence and susceptibility of their offspring to infectious diseases. We tested this hypothesis in wild-derived house mice (Mus musculus) by experimentally infecting the offspring from 15 single and 15 multiple sired litters with two different strains of a mouse pathogen (Salmonella Typhimurium) and compared their ability to control infection. We found high variation in individual infection resistance (measured with pathogen loads) and significant differences among families, suggesting genetic effects on Salmonella resistance, but we found no difference in prevalence or infection resistance between single versus multiple sired litters. We found a significant sex difference in infection resistance, but surprisingly, males were more resistant to infection than females. Also, infection resistance was correlated with weight loss during infection, though only for females, indicat...
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PLOS ONE
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Invasive alien predators (IAP) are spreading on a global scale-often with devastating ecological ... more Invasive alien predators (IAP) are spreading on a global scale-often with devastating ecological effects. One reason for their success may be that prey species fail to recognize them due to a lack of co-evolutionary history. We performed a comprehensive test of this "prey naiveté" hypothesis using a novel approach: we tested whether predator-naive tadpoles of the agile frog (Rana dalmatina) display antipredator behavior upon encountering chemical cues produced by native, invasive (established or recent) or allopatric fishes (four perciforms, four siluriforms, and two cypriniforms). We studied the influence of population origin on predator-detection ability by presenting chemical cues to predator-naive tadpoles that originated from fishless hill-ponds or fish-infested floodplain populations. Before trials, we fed fishes with tadpoles or an alternative food to test whether direct chemical cues from the predator's diet influences the tadpoles' recognition of potential...
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Oecologia, Jan 11, 2015
Chemical cues that evoke anti-predator developmental changes have received considerable attention... more Chemical cues that evoke anti-predator developmental changes have received considerable attention, but it is not known to what extent prey use information from the smell of predators and from cues released through digestion. We conducted an experiment to determine the importance of various types of cues for the adjustment of anti-predator defences. We exposed tadpoles (common frog, Rana temporaria) to water originating from predators (caged dragonfly larvae, Aeshna cyanea) that were fed different types and quantities of prey outside of tadpole-rearing containers. Variation among treatments in the magnitude of morphological and behavioural responses was highly consistent. Our results demonstrate that tadpoles can assess the threat posed by predators through digestion-released, prey-borne cues and continually released predator-borne cues. These cues may play an important role in the fine-tuning of anti-predator responses and significantly affect the outcome of interactions between pre...
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Ecology and evolution, 2014
Multiple mating is common in many species, but it is unclear whether multiple paternity enhances ... more Multiple mating is common in many species, but it is unclear whether multiple paternity enhances offspring genetic diversity or fitness. We conducted a survey on wild house mice (Mus musculus musculus), and we found that in 73 pregnant females, 29% of litters had multiple sires, which is remarkably similar to the 23-26% found in feral populations of Mus musculus domesticus in the USA and Australia, respectively. The question is: How has selection maintained multiple mating in these subspecies since the evolutionary divergence, ca. 2800-6000 years ago? We found no evidence that multiple paternity enhanced females' litter size, contrary to the fertility assurance or genetic benefits hypotheses. Multiple paternity was associated with reduced mean and variance in offspring body mass, which suggests that females allocate fewer resources or that there is increased intrauterine conflict in multiple-versus single-sired litters. We found increased allelic diversity (though not heterozygo...
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Animal Behaviour, 2014
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BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2014
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Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2013
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Animal Cognition, 2013
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Animal Behaviour, 2013
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Papers by Kerstin Thonhauser