RESUMEN
Since non-territorial mice have as good chances for reproduction as territorial mice, we suppose that low territorial compatibility is compensated by higher breeding activity. Based on the scent war hypothesis, proteinuria was used as the criterion of territorial compatibility for male mice. Correlation between proteinuria, assessed as the protein/creatinine ratio, and reproductive output was studied in 22 male mice. Each male was caged with two females for five days. HPLC of urinary samples showed that more than 70 per cent of the proteins lay within the range 15-20 kDa. This result is typical for the major urinary proteins (MURs) which play the key role in chemical signalling im mice. Individual variation of the protein/creatinine ratio had good repeatability in the resampled urinary samples. Male proteinuria correlated negatively with early behavioural response to females, with mating success during the first two days, and with prenatal development of the progeny. Thus, the tradeoff between scent-marking efficiency determined by MUPs and breeding efficiency equalized the reproductive success of male mice with different ability of territorial competition.
