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Query: UMLS:C0027960 (mole)
 21,279 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Non-reproductive females in families of eusocial common mole-rats (Cryptomys sp., Rodentia) are not suppressed by their mother, (either behaviourally or pheromonally) as is generally assumed. They do not mate with their father and brothers simply because they are not sexually attractive for them (and vice versa). The incest avoidance is based on the capability to recognize (and keep in memory for up to three weeks) each family member individually. A 'sterile' daughter may conceive and deliver young in her parental family if given the opportunity to mate with an unfamiliar mate in a separate cage. In this way, two females may breed side by side in one family.
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PMID:Individual recognition and incest avoidance in eusocial common mole-rats rather than reproductive suppression by parents. 772 7

The Damaraland mole-rat Cryptomys damarensis exhibits an extreme reproductive division of labour. Reproduction in the colony is restricted to a single breeding pair, resulting from a two-fold control: (i) a reduced pituitary synthesis and/or secretion of luteinizing hormone leading to a block to ovulation in non-reproductive females; and (ii) a strong inhibition to breeding with familiar kin. Circulating basal concentrations of luteinizing hormone as well as luteinizing hormone levels measured in response to a single exogenous gonadotrophin releasing hormone challenge, were significantly lower in non-reproductive females in the presence of the reproductive female than those in colonies lacking a reproductive female. Urinary progesterone concentrations before the removal of the reproductive female were significantly higher in non-reproductives than the post removal values. Behavioural studies from sib-sib and non-sib pairings provide evidence for a strong incest avoidance, probably resulting from an inhibition of breeding with familiar colony members. A total of four pairings of non-sibs resulted in copulatory activity and eventual conception. In contrast, four couples of sib-sib combinations failed to produce any sexual activity or offspring. Thus, suppression of reproduction in these non-reproductive, subterranean bathyergids is complicated by the masking effect of familiarity that prevents incest, in addition to the physiological inhibition of fertility in the presence of the reproductive female.
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PMID:Reproductive suppression in subordinate, non-breeding female Damaraland mole-rats: two components to a lifetime of socially induced infertility. 895 96

The Mashona mole-rat, Cryptomys darlingi, exhibits an extreme reproductive division of labour. Reproduction in the colony is restricted to a single breeding pair. The non-reproductive male and female colony members are restrained from sexual activity by being familiar and related to one another and the reproductive animals. Circulating basal concentrations of luteinizing hormone (LH) as well as LH levels measured in response to a single exogenous gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) challenge are not significantly different between the reproductive and non-reproductive groups of either sex. Socially induced infertility in both non-reproductive males and females does not result from a reduced pituitary secretion of LH or decreased sensitivity to hypothalamic GnRH, but rather appears to result from an inhibition of reproductive behaviour in these obligate outbreeders. The African mole-rats exhibit a continuum of socially induced infertility with differing social species inhabiting regions of varying degrees of aridity. In this continuum a transition from a predominantly behavioural repression in a social mesic-adapted species through to complete physiological suppression lacking incest avoidance in an arid-adapted eusocial species occurs in this endemic African family of rodents.
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PMID:LH responses to single doses of exogenous GnRH by social Mashona mole-rats: a continuum of socially induced infertility in the family Bathyergidae. 926 67

Zambian common mole-rats are subterranean rodents that live in families with only one female breeding. Her offspring remain in the parental nest and do not reproduce. Behavioral experiments (Burda, '95) demonstrated that their apparent "sterility" is based on incest avoidance and individual recognition of family members. To elucidate whether some kind of morphologically apparent ovarian suppression still takes place in daughters, ovaries of females of known age, weight, and reproductive histories were examined histologically and morphometrically. The body mass of old females (more than 3 years of age) begins to decrease, and the ovaries seem to begin to atrophy at the age of about 3-6 years. Ovaries in neonates exhibited primordial and primary follicles, sometimes clustered in nests. Ovaries of adult nonbreeding females expressed all stages of the follicular development up to tertiary follicles. Many unruptured luteinized follicles were present, but true corpora lutea as a morphological sign of ovulation were missing. Unruptured luteinized follicles also could be found (additionally to true corpora lutea) in ovaries of breeding females. The number of primordial follicles dropped rapidly during the first 2 years of age; the number of primary, secondary, and tertiary follicles was subject to individual variation; and there was no clear correlation with age or reproductive status. While a tendency to form accessory unruptured luteinized follicles may just reflect taxonomic affinities of bathyergids to hystricomorphs, the otherwise complete folliculogenesis in "sterile" daughters and the presence of unruptured luteinized follicles even in breeding females are further evidence that there is no hormonal suppression of the ovarial cycle. We suggest that ovulation in nonbreeding females is not actively suppressed by the breeding female, but instead that it is not released because the triggering mechanisms, most probably repeated copulation, are missing.
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PMID:Ovarian growth and folliculogenesis in breeding and nonbreeding females of a social rodent, the Zambian common mole-rat, Cryptomys sp. 964 90

Colonies of co-operatively breeding African mole-rats have traditionally been thought to be composed of a single breeding female, one or two breeding males, and their offspring. In the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), the occurrence of facultative inbreeding means incest avoidance cannot prevent reproduction in subordinate group members, and physiological suppression of reproductive function by the breeding female occurs in both sexes. In contrast, previous studies of captive colonies of the Damaraland mole-rat (Cryptomys damarensis) suggest that breeding within a colony is restricted to a single breeding pair, simply because all other colony members are highly related (first- or second-order relatives) and this species is an obligate outbreeder. Using microsatellite markers, we investigated parentage and colony composition in 18 wild Damaraland mole-rat colonies to determine whether inbreeding avoidance alone can explain the high levels of reproductive skew in this species. Multiple and unidentified paternity was widespread within colonies and immigrants of both sexes were regularly identified. Unrelated, opposite-sex nonbreeders were found coexisting in two colonies. These results suggest that, in the wild, conditions exist where nonreproductive females can come into contact with unrelated males, even when they do not disperse from their natal colony. Inbreeding avoidance alone is therefore insufficient to maintain the high levels of reproductive skew identified in this species suggesting that the breeding female somehow suppresses the reproductive function in nonbreeding females.
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PMID:Colony structure and parentage in wild colonies of co-operatively breeding Damaraland mole-rats suggest incest avoidance alone may not maintain reproductive skew. 1524 9

In common (Cryptomys hottentotus hottentotus) and highveld (Cryptomys hottentotus pretoriae) mole-rats, reproduction is subject to two forms of regulation in addition to incest avoidance. These are the only social bathyergids known to restrict breeding to a particular season; furthermore, subordinate members of their colonies show suppressed reproduction throughout the year. Females from both species were assessed and compared for social and seasonal effects on the gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) system. GnRH-immunoreactive (ir) structures were visualized immunohistochemically; GnRH content was determined by radioimmunoassay. In both species, GnRH-ir cell bodies and processes are loosely distributed along the septopreopticoinfundibular continuum, with dense fiber aggregations in the region of the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis and median eminence. The two species differ in the rostrocaudal distribution of their GnRH-ir cell bodies. In highveld mole-rats, most of these cells are in the septal/preoptic area; in common mole-rats, more than half of them are in the mediobasal hypothalamus. Compared with common mole-rats, highveld mole-rats have a greater total number of GnRH-ir cell bodies, higher GnRH content, and more intense GnRH immunoreactivity in the median eminence. Within highveld colonies, the nonreproductive females have larger GnRH-ir cell bodies, more intense GnRH immunoreactivity in the median eminence, and higher GnRH content than the reproductive females; these findings suggest inhibited release of GnRH in the nonreproductive, subordinate females. In contrast, in common mole-rat females, neither status nor season appears to affect the investigated parameters of the GnRH system; this suggests a predominantly behavioral basis to their suppressed reproduction.
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PMID:Relations between social status and the gonadotrophin-releasing hormone system in females of two cooperatively breeding species of African mole-rats, Cryptomys hottentotus hottentotus and Cryptomys hottentotus pretoriae: neuroanatomical and neuroendocrinological studies. 1632 Feb 40

Ansell's mole-rats (Fukomys anselli) are subterranean rodents living in families composed of about 20 members with a single breeding pair and their non-breeding offspring. Most of them remain with their parents for their lifetime and help to maintain and defend the natal burrow system, forage, and care for younger siblings. Since incest avoidance is based on individual recognition (and not on social suppression) we expect that non-breeders produce viable sperm spontaneously. We compared the sperm of breeding and non-breeding males, obtained by electroejaculation and found no significant differences in sperm parameters between both groups. Here, we used electroejaculation to obtain semen for the first time in a subterranean mammal. Spermiogram analysis revealed no significant differences in sperm parameters between breeders and non-breeders. We found significantly larger testes (measured on autopsies and on living animals per ultrasonography) of breeders compared to non-breeders (with body mass having a significant effect). There were no marked histological differences between breeding and non-breeding males, and the relative area occupied by Leydig cells and seminiferous tubules on histological sections, respectively, was not significantly different between both groups. The seminiferous epithelium and to a lesser degree the interstitial testicular tissue are characterized by lesions (vacuolar degenerations), however, this feature does not hinder fertilization even in advanced stages of life. The continuous production of viable sperm also in sexually abstinent non-breeders might be best understood in light of the mating and social system of Fukomys anselli, and the potential to found a new family following an unpredictable and rare encounter with an unfamiliar female ("provoked or induced dispersal"). Apparently, the non-breeders do not reproduce because they do not copulate but not because they would be physiologically infertile. The significantly increased testes volume of breeding males (compared to non-breeders) is in agreement with previously found higher testosterone levels of breeders.
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PMID:Non-Breeding Eusocial Mole-Rats Produce Viable Sperm--Spermiogram and Functional Testicular Morphology of Fukomys anselli. 2693 88