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Morphological Plasticity in the Mouse Hallucal Metatarsal
Author(s) -
Byron Craig Daniel,
Herrel Anthony,
Pauwels Elin,
Patel Biren A
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.747.7
Subject(s) - climbing , biology , anatomy , torsion (gastropod) , materials science , ecology
The objective of this study was to examine if climbing on thin substrates influences mouse hallucal metatarsal (Mt1) morphology. We focused on the Mt1 because mice raised in climbing habitats containing narrow branches frequently utilized secure hallucal grasps while controls did not. Forty male and female, skeletally mature CD‐1/ICR mice (≥4 months) were raised in experimental habitats from weaning (21 days) to adulthood. After euthanasia, Mt1s were isolated and high resolution μCT scans were obtained with a voxel size of 0.003865 mm. Several morphological parameters at bone midshaft were calculated using ImageJ software (BoneJ plugin). These variables included estimates for compressive strength (CA), bending strength (Z), and torsion strength (J), and all were scaled to their biomechanically appropriate scaling variable (bone length and/or body mass). We found that CA (P<0.05) and Zmax (P<0.1) were significantly greater in climbers. These mice had Mt1s that were more robust, with greater resistance to compression and bending moments. We conclude that Mt1 cross‐sectional geometry exhibits significant phenotypic plasticity in response to increased hallucal grasping when locomoting in a fine branch niche. Moreover, our results provide further evidence that post‐natal morphological development is influenced by substrate type and habitual locomotor behavior.