Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 1998 Feb 7;265(1392):167–173. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1998.0278

Retroviruses and sexual size dimorphism in domestic cats (Felis catus L.).

D Pontier 1, E Fromont 1, F Courchamp 1, M Artois 1, N G Yoccoz 1
PMCID: PMC1688870  PMID: 9493404

Abstract

Hochberg and co-workers have predicted that an increase in host adult mortality due to parasites is balanced by an earlier age at first reproduction. In polygynous species we hypothesize that such a pattern would lead to diverging selection pressure on body size between sexes and increased sexual size dimorphism. In polygynous mammals, male body size is considered to be an important factor for reproductive success. Thus, under the pressure of a virulent infection, males should be selected for rapid growth and/or higher body size to be able to compete successfully as soon as possible with opponents. In contrast, under the same selection pressure, females should be selected for lighter adult body size or rapid growth to reach sexual maturity earlier. We investigated this hypothesis in the domestic cat Felis catus. Orange cats have greater body size dimorphism than non-orange cats. Orange females are lighter than non-orange females, and orange males are heavier than non-orange males. Here, we report the extent to which orange and non-orange individuals differ in infection prevelance for two retroviruses, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukaemia virus (FeLV). FIV is thought to be transmitted almost exclusively through aggressive contacts between individuals, whereas FeLV transmission occurs mainly through social contacts. The pattern of infection of both diseases is consistent with the higher aggressiveness of orange cats. In both sexes, orange cats are significantly more infected by FIV, and tend to be less infected by FeLV than other cats. The pattern of infection is also consistent with an earlier age at first reproduction in orange than in non-orange cats, at least for females. These results suggest that microparasitism may have played an important role in the evolution of sexual size dimorphism of domestic cats.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (252.6 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Benus R. F., Bohus B., Koolhaas J. M., van Oortmerssen G. A. Heritable variation for aggression as a reflection of individual coping strategies. Experientia. 1991 Oct 15;47(10):1008–1019. doi: 10.1007/BF01923336. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Benveniste R. E., Sherr C. J., Todaro G. J. Evolution of type C viral genes: origin of feline leukemia virus. Science. 1975 Nov 28;190(4217):886–888. doi: 10.1126/science.52892. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Courchamp F., Pontier D. Feline immunodeficiency virus: an epidemiological review. C R Acad Sci III. 1994 Dec;317(12):1123–1134. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Grant C. K., Essex M., Gardner M. B., Hardy W. D., Jr Natural feline leukemia virus infection and the immune response of cats of different ages. Cancer Res. 1980 Mar;40(3):823–829. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Kleiman D. G. Monogamy in mammals. Q Rev Biol. 1977 Mar;52(1):39–69. doi: 10.1086/409721. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Lutz H., Arnold P., Hübscher U., Egberink H., Pedersen N., Horzinek M. C. Specificity assessment of feline T-lymphotropic lentivirus serology. Zentralbl Veterinarmed B. 1988 Dec;35(10):773–778. doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0450.1988.tb00559.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Lutz H., Pedersen N. C., Theilen G. H. Course of feline leukemia virus infection and its detection by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and monoclonal antibodies. Am J Vet Res. 1983 Nov;44(11):2054–2059. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Michalakis Y., Hochberg M. E. Parasitic effects on host life-history traits: a review of recent studies. Parasite. 1994 Dec;1(4):291–294. doi: 10.1051/parasite/1994014291. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. O'Neil L. L., Burkhard M. J., Hoover E. A. Frequent perinatal transmission of feline immunodeficiency virus by chronically infected cats. J Virol. 1996 May;70(5):2894–2901. doi: 10.1128/jvi.70.5.2894-2901.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Pedersen N. C., Ho E. W., Brown M. L., Yamamoto J. K. Isolation of a T-lymphotropic virus from domestic cats with an immunodeficiency-like syndrome. Science. 1987 Feb 13;235(4790):790–793. doi: 10.1126/science.3643650. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Pedersen N. C., Torten M., Rideout B., Sparger E., Tonachini T., Luciw P. A., Ackley C., Levy N., Yamamoto J. Feline leukemia virus infection as a potentiating cofactor for the primary and secondary stages of experimentally induced feline immunodeficiency virus infection. J Virol. 1990 Feb;64(2):598–606. doi: 10.1128/jvi.64.2.598-606.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Ralls K. Mammals in which females are larger than males. Q Rev Biol. 1976 Jun;51(2):245–276. doi: 10.1086/409310. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Shine R. Ecological causes for the evolution of sexual dimorphism: a review of the evidence. Q Rev Biol. 1989 Dec;64(4):419–461. doi: 10.1086/416458. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Sparger E. E. Current thoughts on feline immunodeficiency virus infection. Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract. 1993 Jan;23(1):173–191. doi: 10.1016/s0195-5616(93)50011-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Tompkins M. B., Nelson P. D., English R. V., Novotney C. Early events in the immunopathogenesis of feline retrovirus infections. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 1991 Nov 15;199(10):1311–1315. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Ueland K., Nesse L. L. No evidence of vertical transmission of naturally acquired feline immunodeficiency virus infection. Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 1992 Sep;33(4):301–308. doi: 10.1016/0165-2427(92)90002-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. van Oortmerssen G. A., Bakker T. C. Artificial selection for short and long attack latencies in wild Mus musculus domesticus. Behav Genet. 1981 Mar;11(2):115–126. doi: 10.1007/BF01065622. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences are provided here courtesy of The Royal Society

RESOURCES