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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2022.12.26.521927

Longitudinal monitoring of maternal care and maternal neglect

Schuster, L.·Henderson, R.·Sankar, S.·Ananth, D.·Kirk, M.·Leone, P.·Adolph, K. E.·Froemke, R. C.·Mar, A.
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Abstract

Parental care is required for offspring survival, because infants require nearly-continual oversight for extensive periods. Parents must balance caretaking with their own survival, and benefit from help provided by other experienced adults. We built a system for 24/7 long-term monitoring of wild-type or oxytocin receptor knockout (OXTR-KO) mouse mothers ( dams) over litters. Some wild-type dams had high litter survival rates, but others consistently lost pups due to neglect and hypothermia. Maternal caretaking in low-pup-survival dams improved after co-housing with an experienced dam and litter, from reorganized maternal behavior including increased nest-building. In contrast, singly-housed OXTR-KOs died in childbirth and pups died due to prolonged parturition. Co-housing with a lactating female prevented OXTR-KO maternal-infant mortality, because the other female acted as a midwife by removing and cleaning pups from the pregnant dam. Thus for single mothers that continually lose litters or die in labor, maternal-infant survival is enhanced by experienced helpers.

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Schuster, L., Henderson, R., Sankar, S., Ananth, D., Kirk, M., Leone, P., Adolph, K. E., Froemke, R. C., Mar, A.. 2022-12-26. Longitudinal monitoring of maternal care and maternal neglect. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.26.521927

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