Phenotypic variability between Social Dominance Ranks in laboratory mice.

Varholick, Justin Adam; Bailoo, Jeremy Davidson; Palme, Rupert; Würbel, Hanno (2018). Phenotypic variability between Social Dominance Ranks in laboratory mice. Scientific Reports, 8(1), p. 6593. Nature Publishing Group 10.1038/s41598-018-24624-4

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The laboratory mouse is the most prevalent animal used in experimental procedures in the biomedical and behavioural sciences. Yet, many scientists fail to consider the animals' social context. Within a cage, mice may differ in their behaviour and physiology depending on their dominance relationships. Therefore, dominance relationships may be a confounding factor in animal experiments. The current study housed male and female C57BL/6ByJ mice in same-sex groups of 5 in standard laboratory conditions and investigated whether dominance hierarchies were present and stable across three weeks, and whether mice of different dominance ranks varied consistently in behaviour and physiology. We found that dominance ranks of most mice changed with time, but were most stable between the 2 and 3 week of testing. Phenotypic measures were also highly variable, and we found no relation between dominance rank and phenotype. Further, we found limited evidence that variation in measures of phenotype was associated with cage assignment for either males or females. Taken together, these findings do not lend support to the general assumption that individual variation among mice is larger between cages than within cages.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Veterinary Public Health Institute > Animal Welfare Division
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Veterinary Public Health Institute

Graduate School:

Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences (GCB)

UniBE Contributor:

Varholick, Justin Adam, Bailoo, Jeremy Davidson, Würbel, Hanno

ISSN:

2045-2322

Publisher:

Nature Publishing Group

Language:

English

Submitter:

Jeremy Davidson Bailoo

Date Deposited:

26 Jun 2018 14:06

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:15

Publisher DOI:

10.1038/s41598-018-24624-4

PubMed ID:

29700322

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.117415

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/117415

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