Like father like son! Mice take a cue from their own dads when it comes to parenting, a new study has found.
US researchers found that male mice with neglectful fathers grow up to be less nurturing to their own babies.
In the study, mice sons with less affectionate fathers gave their own offspring the same treatment, suggesting paternal behaviour can be passed from fathers to sons across multiple generations, LiveScience reported.
In the mammal world, paternal care is seen in only 5 per cent of species.
"There are very few animal model systems which we can use to study paternal behaviour," said study co-author Catherine Marler, a behavioural neuroendocrinologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The epigenetic" alterations - probably contribute.
The nurturing behaviour of father mice could provide a model for humans, Marler said.
Whereas scientists can't do that same kind of study with people, "there are correlations in humans between parental behaviour and the behaviour of offspring," she said.
Previous research in mice and vervet monkeys has shown that the amount of maternal care influences stress levels in the offspring.
Marler hopes to investigate similar effects of paternal care on stress.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
