Genetic and developmental influences on infant mouse ultrasonic calling. I. A diallel analysis of the calls of 3-day olds.

Ultrasonic calls produced by young mice reliably elicit investigation and retrieval by adults. While there are large individual differences in the characteristics of these calls, little work has been done to partition that variation. We completed a 4 x 4 diallel cross and Hayman analyses on several characteristics of these cries. The major result was the detection of directional dominance toward a higher rate of calling, longer calls, and calls of lower overall frequency with a greater bandwidth. Within the context of biometrical genetic theory, we conclude that calls with such characteristics may have important fitness value. Extending this idea, we propose that within the population sampled for this study (the animals of the four inbred strains and 12 F1 hybrid groups), the calls most effectively eliciting investigation and retrieval would be calls with the average hybrid values of the diallel cross.