期刊
PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR
卷 99, 期 4, 页码 433-437出版社
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2009.11.015
关键词
Phenotypic marker; Intrauterine; Steroids; Early development; Maternal effect
资金
- Finnish Cultural Foundation
- Academy of Finland [209198, 106036]
- Academy of Finland (AKA) [106036, 209198, 106036, 209198] Funding Source: Academy of Finland (AKA)
The steroid environment encountered by a foetus can strongly affect its post-natal physiology and behaviour. It has been proposed that steroid concentrations experienced in utero could be estimated from adults by measuring their second-to-fourth digit length ratio (2D:4D). However, there is still little direct evidence that intra-uterine steroid levels affect individual 2D:4D. We examined whether maternal pre-pregnancy testosterone and corticosterone levels (as estimates of intra-uterine testosterone and corticosterone exposure) affected the 2D:4D of pups in non-domesticated field voles (Microtus agrestis), measured by X-rays at the age of weaning (21 days). Furthermore, for the first time in a non-human species, we studied whether testosterone and corticosterone levels correlated with 2D:4D in adult females. We found that the maternal pre-pregnancy level of testosterone was not associated with offspring 20:40 in either the left or the right paw. Instead, maternal pre-pregnancy corticosterone level was positively correlated with offspring 2D:4D in the right paw, but unrelated to 2D:4D in the left paw. In addition, the 2D:4D of adult females was not associated with either their circulating testosterone or corticosterone levels. Our results suggest that in field voles maternally administered testosterone is not a major determinant of offspring 2D:4D, whereas maternal stress appears to account for some of the variation in the 2D:4D of their offspring. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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