Oxidative stress (an overproduction of reactive oxygen species in relation to defense mechanisms) may restrict investment in life history traits, such as growth, reproduction, lifespan, and the production of sexual signals to attract mates. The constraint on sexual signaling by oxidative stress is of particular interest because it has been proposed as a mechanism ensuring that only good-quality males produce the most attractive sexual signals. Despite these predictions, evidence supporting this theory is, at best, equivocal. We used a superoxide dismutase knockout mouse to demonstrate that oxidative stress directly impairs investment in morphological (preputial glands) and molecular (major urinary proteins) components of olfactory signaling essential for mate attraction. By maintaining males in a much more competitive environment than usual for mouse laboratory experiments, we also revealed a range of phenotypes of superoxide dismutase deficiency not observed in previous studies of this mouse model. This range included impaired bioenergetic function, which was undetectable in the control environment of this study. We urge further examination of model organisms in seminatural conditions and more competitive laboratory environments, as important phenotypes can be exposed under these more demanding conditions.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 9. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 May 2014.
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#5,145,798
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Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#48,619
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#42,652
of 274,166 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#520
of 943 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,400,738 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 83rd percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 118,992 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 40.1. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 52% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 274,166 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 943 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 43rd percentile – i.e., 43% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
