Abstract
Hibernating mammals exhibit unique metabolic and physiological phenotypes that have potential applications in medicine or spaceflight, yet our understanding of the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms of hibernation is limited. The meadow jumping mouse, a small North American hibernator, exhibits traits–including a short generation time–that would facilitate genetic approaches to hibernation research. Here we report the collection, captive breeding, and laboratory hibernation of meadow jumping mice. Captive breeders in our colony produced a statistically significant excess of male offspring and a large number of all-male and all-female litters. We confirmed that short photoperiod induced pre-hibernation fattening, and cold ambient temperature facilitated entry into hibernation. During pre-hibernation fattening, food consumption exhibited non-linear dependence on both body mass and temperature, such that food consumption was greatest in the heaviest animals at the coldest temperatures. Meadow jumping mice exhibited a strong circadian rhythm of nightly activity that was disrupted during the hibernation interval. We conclude that it is possible to study hibernation phenotypes using captive-bred meadow jumping mice in a laboratory setting.
Highlights
Torpor and hibernation form a continuum of phenotypes that is widespread throughout many orders of mammals [1, 2], suggesting that heterothermy is an ancestral trait that was maintained during the evolution of endothermy [3]
Hibernation research has historically been closely aligned with ecology and ecological physiology, with the organisms used in hibernation research selected from wild populations locally available to investigators
Close North American relatives include other hibernating species in the same genus, the western jumping mouse (Zapus princeps) and Pacific jumping mouse (Zapus trinotatus), which both diverged from the meadow jumping mouse less than 3 million years ago [33]
Summary
Torpor and hibernation form a continuum of phenotypes that is widespread throughout many orders of mammals [1, 2], suggesting that heterothermy is an ancestral trait that was maintained during the evolution of endothermy [3]. Mammalian hibernators include species of bears, bats, rodents, marsupials, and even primates [4]. The state of torpor employed by hibernating animals–profoundly reduced body temperature and significantly slowed metabolic rate–has attracted attention for its potential therapeutic applications in human medicine and spaceflight [5, 6], little is known about its underlying molecular mechanisms or genetics [1]. Traditional species of interest–including bears, bats, ground squirrels, and dormice–exhibit a prolonged period of hibernation fueled by accumulated fat stores, but such species have long generation times and are not readily.
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