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No evidence for kin protection in the expression of sickness behaviors in house mice
When infected, animals change their behaviors in several ways, including by decreasing their activity, their food and water intake, and their interest in social interactions. These behavioral alterations are collectively called sickness behaviors and, for several decades, the main hypotheses put for...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6232183/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30420741 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35174-0 |
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author | Lopes, Patricia C. Block, Per Pontiggia, Alice Lindholm, Anna K. König, Barbara |
author_facet | Lopes, Patricia C. Block, Per Pontiggia, Alice Lindholm, Anna K. König, Barbara |
author_sort | Lopes, Patricia C. |
collection | PubMed |
description | When infected, animals change their behaviors in several ways, including by decreasing their activity, their food and water intake, and their interest in social interactions. These behavioral alterations are collectively called sickness behaviors and, for several decades, the main hypotheses put forward to explain this phenomenon were that engaging in sickness behaviors facilitated the fever response and improved the likelihood of host survival. However, a new hypothesis was recently proposed suggesting that engaging in sickness behaviors may serve to protect kin. We tested this kin protection hypothesis by combining a field and a laboratory experiment in house mice. In both experiments, we induced sickness behaviors by administration of a pro-inflammatory agent. In the field experiment, we then collected genetic data and assessed whether relatedness affected the intensity of sickness behaviors. In the lab experiment, we manipulated relatedness in small social groups and assessed whether having a closely related individual (a sibling) in the group altered social interactions or visits to common resources (such as food and water containers) once immune-challenged. Our results do not support the kinship protection hypothesis and therefore advance our understanding of why such an apparently costly set of behavioral changes would be evolutionarily maintained. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6232183 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-62321832018-11-28 No evidence for kin protection in the expression of sickness behaviors in house mice Lopes, Patricia C. Block, Per Pontiggia, Alice Lindholm, Anna K. König, Barbara Sci Rep Article When infected, animals change their behaviors in several ways, including by decreasing their activity, their food and water intake, and their interest in social interactions. These behavioral alterations are collectively called sickness behaviors and, for several decades, the main hypotheses put forward to explain this phenomenon were that engaging in sickness behaviors facilitated the fever response and improved the likelihood of host survival. However, a new hypothesis was recently proposed suggesting that engaging in sickness behaviors may serve to protect kin. We tested this kin protection hypothesis by combining a field and a laboratory experiment in house mice. In both experiments, we induced sickness behaviors by administration of a pro-inflammatory agent. In the field experiment, we then collected genetic data and assessed whether relatedness affected the intensity of sickness behaviors. In the lab experiment, we manipulated relatedness in small social groups and assessed whether having a closely related individual (a sibling) in the group altered social interactions or visits to common resources (such as food and water containers) once immune-challenged. Our results do not support the kinship protection hypothesis and therefore advance our understanding of why such an apparently costly set of behavioral changes would be evolutionarily maintained. Nature Publishing Group UK 2018-11-12 /pmc/articles/PMC6232183/ /pubmed/30420741 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35174-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Lopes, Patricia C. Block, Per Pontiggia, Alice Lindholm, Anna K. König, Barbara No evidence for kin protection in the expression of sickness behaviors in house mice |
title | No evidence for kin protection in the expression of sickness behaviors in house mice |
title_full | No evidence for kin protection in the expression of sickness behaviors in house mice |
title_fullStr | No evidence for kin protection in the expression of sickness behaviors in house mice |
title_full_unstemmed | No evidence for kin protection in the expression of sickness behaviors in house mice |
title_short | No evidence for kin protection in the expression of sickness behaviors in house mice |
title_sort | no evidence for kin protection in the expression of sickness behaviors in house mice |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6232183/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30420741 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35174-0 |
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