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PubMed1998

Environmental and genetic variance in children's observed and reported maladaptive behavior.

The genetic and environmental contributions to children's maladaptive behavior are assessed in a sample of 154 twin pairs (77 MZ twin pairs and 77 DZ twin pairs), who range in age from 6 to 11 years. To bridge the strengths of behavioral genetic methods and environmental assessment techniques, we use a multimethod, multimeasure approach to data collection, and analyze the data using behavioral genetic modeling techniques. Results indicate that genetic variation accounts for a majority of the variance in parent-reported child maladaptive behavior (average = 62%). One parent-report measure also suggests a smaller, significant contribution of shared environmental variance. In contrast to the parental ratings, the observational coding and global impressions of parent-twin interactive behavior suggest that shared environment is the primary source of variance accounting for parent and child maladaptive behavior. This is due, in part, to the direct influence one's interactive partner has on the expression of maladaptive behavior in an interactive setting. When controlling for the co-participant's behavior, genetic variation increases and shared environmental variation decreases.

Child↗
PubMed1988

A classical genetic analysis of two apomorphine-induced behaviors in the mouse.

Apomorphine (3 mg/kg) produced in C57BL/6 (C57) mice a clear-cut increase in locomotor activity and climbing behavior in comparison with saline, while in DBA/2 (DBA) mice it produced a clear-cut decrease in locomotion and a small reduction in climbing behavior. Genetic analysis involving F1 and F2 hybrids and the backcross populations (F1 X C57; F1 X DBA) indicated that apomorphine-induced locomotion and climbing are inherited through different modes of inheritance. With regard to climbing behavior the mean analysis of apomorphine parameters showed that the additive-dominance model fitted adequately, while this single model did not fit the locomotor activity data for which the best fitting model involved epistatic parameter. Moreover, a zero correlation between the two behaviors in the F2 generation resulted, indicating that no relationship exists between these apomorphine-induced behaviors under our experimental conditions. These results suggest that the horizontal locomotion and climbing are distinct behaviors controlled, at least in part, by different genetic factors related to different dopaminergic mechanisms.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Test- and behavior-specific genetic factors affect WKY hypoactivity in tests of emotionality.

Inbred Wistar-Kyoto rats consistently display hypoactivity in tests of emotional behavior. We used them to test the hypothesis that the genetic factors underlying the behavioral decision-making process will vary in different environmental contexts. The contexts used were the open-field test (OFT), a novel environment with no explicit threats present, and the defensive-burying test (DB), a habituated environment into which a threat has been introduced. Rearing, a voluntary behavior was measured in both tests, and our study was the first to look for genetic loci affecting grooming, a relatively automatic, stress-responsive stereotyped behavior. Quantitative trait locus analysis was performed on a population of 486 F2 animals bred from reciprocal inter-crosses. The genetic architectures of DB and OFT rearing, and of DB and OFT grooming, were compared. There were no common loci affecting grooming behavior in both tests. These different contexts produced the stereotyped behavior via different pathways, and genetic factors seem to influence the decision-making pathways and not the expression of the behavior. Three loci were found that affected rearing behavior in both tests. However, in both contexts, other loci had greater effects on the behavior. Our results imply that environmental context's effects on decision-making vary depending on the category of behavior.

Agonistic Behavior↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The genetics of behavior].

A review of the papers published in the Journal of Higher Nervous Activity dedicated to behavioral and neurophysiological studies carried out using the genetic approach is presented. The review is based on classification, which subdivides the diversity of behavioral phenomena into three large categories: instinctive, acquired behavior, and elementary reasoning phenomena. The main contribution to these publications was made by researches at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch (Novosibirsk), Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences (St.-Petersburg), and Department of Physiology of Higher Nervous Activity, Biological Faculty, Lomonosov State University (Moscow). The traditional lines of investigations are: behavioral and neurochemical consequences of domestication, numerous physiological correlations in rat strains selected for high and low excitability levels, and genetic studies of animal reasoning.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Genetic and behavioral tests of the McManus hypothesis relating response to selection for lateralization of handedness in mice to degree of heterozygosity.

McManus advanced a genetic hypothesis to explain differences of lateralization between HI and LO lines of mice selectively bred for degree of handedness. It states that lateralization is a function of heterozygosity. Specifically it predicts that (a) the HI line will be more heterozygous than the LO line and (b) populations with a greater average heterozygosity (AH) will be more strongly lateralized. Both genetic and behavioral predictions were tested here. Results using coat color and biochemical variants show that AH in the HI line is somewhat less (not greater) than that in the LO line. The handedness of HET control mice and HI by LO reciprocal hybrids, where AH is greater than that of the HI line, exhibits lessened (not greater) lateralization. Results reject the heterozygosity hypothesis. A model for the inheritance of human handedness that accounts for difficulty in detecting heritable differences in degree of asymmetry is presented.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Importance of nonshared environmental factors for childhood and adolescent psychopathology.

OBJECTIVE: To briefly summarize behavioral genetic findings in relation to child and adolescent psychopathology, paying special attention to the environmental rather than genetic components of variation, and to describe recent research exploring specific nonshared environmental processes in the development of adolescent depression. METHOD: Behavioral genetic studies of child and adolescent psychopathology were outlined, with special attention given to findings from the Nonshared Environment and Adolescent Development Project. This project was also used to explore maternal negativity as a "candidate" nonshared environmental influence for adolescent depression. RESULTS: These studies indicate that the environmental factors influencing developmental psychopathology are primarily of the nonshared variety (with the notable exception of juvenile delinquency). In addition, consistent results have not yet emerged from assessments of adolescent depression. Finally, maternal negativity was identified as a specific nonshared environmental factor related to adolescent depression. CONCLUSIONS: The environment as well as genetics is important to understanding childhood psychiatric disorders, and behavioral genetic designs provide the best evidence for this. Specifically, environments not shared by siblings are particularly salient. From a clinical standpoint, these considerations point to the importance of assessing the entire family rather than only the family member with the "problem."

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Genetic analyses of teacher ratings of problem behavior in 5-year-old twins.

Behavioral problems in young children can be assessed by asking their parents or teachers to rate their behaviors. Genetic analyses of parental ratings show relatively large heritabilities for emotional and behavioral problems in young children, but data from teachers for this age group are scarce. Sources of variation in the Teacher's Report Form (TRF) problem scales were examined. The TRF was completed for 211 Dutch 5-year-old twin pairs and 4 single twins. Twins rated by different teachers had higher means and variances than twins rated by the same teacher, in addition twin correlations were lower in this group. In both groups monozygotic (MZ) correlations were generally higher than dizygotic (DZ) correlations. A model for twin resemblance was tested that allowed for these effects. For 5 problem scales (Withdrawn, Social Problems, Aggressive Behavior, Rule Breaking Behavior and Attention Problems) a model with genetic and unique environmental sources of variation fitted best to the data. For 3 problem scales (Anxious/Depressed, Thought Problems and Somatic Complaints) there were familial influences but it was not possible to distinguish between common environmental influences or genetic influences. Heritability was 63% for Attention problems, around 45% for Withdrawn, Social Problems, Aggressive Behavior and Rule Breaking Behavior, and around 30% for Anxious/Depressed, Thought Problems and Somatic Complaints.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2001

Genes, evolution, and personality.

There is abundant evidence, some of it reviewed in this paper, that personality traits are substantially influenced by the genes. Much remains to be understood about how and why this is the case. We argue that placing the behavior genetics of personality in the context of epidemiology, evolutionary psychology, and neighboring psychological domains such as interests and attitudes should help lead to new insights. We suggest that important methodological advances, such as measuring traits from multiple viewpoints, using large samples, and analyzing data by modern multivariate techniques, have already led to major changes in our view of such perennial puzzles as the role of "unshared environment" in personality. In the long run, but not yet, approaches via molecular genetics and brain physiology may also make decisive contributions to understanding the heritability of personality traits. We conclude that the behavior genetics of personality is alive and flourishing but that there remains ample scope for new growth and that much social science research is seriously compromised if it does not incorporate genetic variation in its explanatory models.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Genetic and behavioral differences among five inbred mouse strains commonly used in the production of transgenic and knockout mice.

Five strains of mice commonly used in transgenic and knockout production were compared with regard to genetic background and behavior. These strains were: C57BL/6J, C57BL/6NTac, 129P3/J (formerly 129/J), 129S6/SvEvTac (formerly 129/SvEvTac) and FVB/NTac. Genotypes for 342 microsatellite markers and performance in three behavioral tests (rotorod, open field activity and habituation, and contextual and cued fear conditioning) were determined. C57BL/6J and C57BL/6NTac were found to be true substrains; there were only 12 microsatellite differences between them. Given the data on the genetic background, one might predict that the two C57BL/6 substrains should be very similar behaviorally. Indeed, there were no significant behavioral differences between C57BL/6J and C57BL/6NTac. Contrary to literature reports on other 129 strains, 129S6/SvEvTac often performed similarly to C57BL/6 strains, except that it was less active. FVB/NTac showed impaired rotorod learning and cued fear conditioning. Therefore, both 129S6/SvEvTac and C57BL/6 are recommended as background strains for targeted mutations when researchers want to evaluate their mice in any of these three behavior tests. However, any transgene on the FVB/NTac background should be transferred to B6. Habituation to the open field was analyzed using the parameters: total distance, center distance, velocity and vertical activity. Contrary to earlier studies, we found that all strains habituated to the open field in at least two of these parameters (center distance and velocity).

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Ethanol self-administration in long sleep and short sleep mice indicates reinforcement is not inversely related to neurosensitivity.

Studies of ethanol drinking suggest an inverse correlation between innate sensitivity to ethanol and behavior reinforced by this drug. The present study investigated ethanol reinforced behavior in mice selectively bred for high, Long Sleep/Institute for Behavioral Genetics (LS), and low, Short Sleep/Institute for Behavioral Genetics (SS), sensitivity to ethanol. Results show that both lines will drink large amounts of ethanol postprandially. However, in the absence of food presentation, LS and SS mice differed significantly in ethanol reinforced behavior. Ethanol maintained higher rates of responding, greater intake and higher blood ethanol levels in LS relative to SS mice across increasing fixed-ratio values. Ethanol did not maintain fixed-ratio lever pressing above rates maintained by vehicle in SS mice. Responding for and consumption of 8% ethanol significantly exceeded that of vehicle only in LS mice. Response rates of LS mice showed a typical inverted U-shaped relationship to ethanol concentration. Postsession blood ethanol levels and body temperatures indicated pharmacologically significant ethanol intake only in LS mice. Thus, ethanol served as an effective reinforcer in LS mice across a range of environmental conditions. Conversely, ethanol was not established as a positive reinforcer in SS mice under any of the broad range of conditions studied. These results are not consistent with the frequently reported negative correlation between ethanol intake and sensitivity to ethanol and rule out a causal basis for correlations seen between these traits.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Genetic variation for oviposition behavior in Drosophila melanogaster. I. Quantitative genetic analysis of insertion behavior.

The genetic basis of egg insertion behavior was analyzed in two Drosophila melanogaster strains (N and E strain), which were homozygous for the Slow allele of the alcohol dehydrogenase locus. The E strain had been selected for increased tolerance to ethanol. This study originated from the observation that nearly all of the eggs laid by females of the E strain were inserted, while in the control strain (N strain) which was kept on regular food, considerable variation for egg insertion occurred. Crosses between the E and the N strains were made, and quantitative genetic tests were performed. It was shown that the inheritance of egg insertion is polygenic, some of the genes are probably sex linked, and in-laying is partly dominant over on-laying. The heritability of the trait, derived from mother-daughter regression analysis, was .59 +/- .18. The repeatability was high. Bidirectional selection in the E strain was unsuccessful, but an asymmetrical response to selection was obtained in the N strain and in lines derived from crosses between the N and the E strains. Selection for in-laying was more successful than for on-laying. The realized heritability in the former lines was .35 +/- .10.

Alcohol Dehydrogenase↗
PubMed1981

[From the genetics of disease to the genetics of behavior].

Apparently a kind of antimony exists between the psychopathological approach which implies a continuum between normality and abnormality and genetic studies which intend to give a causal explanation of the mental illness. The choice of the behavioral phenotype requires nevertheless some psychopathological and clinical criteria. Furthermore, when we consider the mode of action of the genetic factor we are dealing with a behavioral target as much as with physiological mechanisms. When we discover a genetic factor in the determinism of a particular mental disorder, we must admit that the same factor is involved in the determinism of the normal behavior which corresponds to this disorder. It follows that the genetic analysis of mental illness appears as a particular methodology for the genetic approach of behavior in a general way. But it needs that we build up a new phenomenology of human behavior which fits with this approach.

Bipolar Disorder↗
PubMed2007

Unique chromosome behavior and genetic control in Brassica x Orychophragmus wide hybrids: a review.

Researchers recognized early that chromosome behavior, as other morphological characters, is under genetic control and gave some cytogenetical examples such as the homoeologous chromosome pairing in wheat. In the intergeneric sexual hybrids between cultivated Brassica species and another crucifer Orychophragmus violaceus, the phenomenon of parental genome separation was found under genetic control during mitosis and meiosis. The cytogenetics of these hybrids was species-specific for Brassica parents. The different chromosome behavior of hybrids with three Brassica diploids (B. rapa, B. nigra and B. oleracea) might contribute to the different cytology of hybrids with three tetraploids (B. napus, B. juncea and B. carinata). The finding that genome-specific retention or loss of chromosomes in hybrids of O. violaceus with B. carinata and synthetic Brassica hexaploids (2n=54, AABBCC) is likely related to nucleolar dominance gives new insight into the molecular mechanisms regarding the cytology in these hybrids. It is proposed that the preferential expressions of genes for centromeric proteins from one parent (such as the well presented centromeric histone H3) are related with chromosome stability in wide hybrids and nucleolar dominance is beneficial to the production of centromere-specific proteins of the rRNAs-donor parent and to the stability of its chromosomes.

Brassica↗
PubMed1987

Sexual behavior: its genetic control during development and adulthood in Drosophila melanogaster.

Courtship behavior in Drosophila melanogaster males is an innate behavior pattern. Whether or not a fly will display male courtship behavior is governed by the action of a set of regulatory genes that control all aspects of somatic sexual differentiation. The wild-type function of one of these regulatory genes, transformer-2 (tra-2), is necessary for female sexual differentiation; in the absence of tra-2+ function XX individuals differentiate as males. A temperature-sensitive tra-2 allele has been used to investigate, by means of temperature shifts, when and how male courtship behavior is specified during development. The removal of tra-2ts function in the adult (by a shift of the tra-2ts mutant flies to the restrictive temperature) can lead to the appearance of male courtship behavior in flies that otherwise would not display these behaviors. These experiments suggest that the regulatory hierarchy controlling sexual differentiation is functioning in the adult central nervous system. More importantly, these results suggest that the adult central nervous system has some functional plasticity with respect to the innate behavioral pattern of male courtship and is maintained in a particular state of differentiation by the active control of gene expression in the adult.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Plasticity and behavior: new genetic techniques to address multiple forms and functions.

As the best-studied form of vertebrate synaptic plasticity, NMDA-receptor dependent long-term potentiation (NMDAR-LTP) has long been considered a leading candidate for a cellular locus for some aspects of learning and memory. However, assigning a specific role for this form of plasticity in learning and memory has proven surprisingly difficult. Two issues have contributed to this difficulty. First, a large number of molecules have been shown to in some way mediate or modulate not only NMDAR-LTP but also many forms of plasticity. Indeed, it is increasingly clear that multiple induction and maintenance mechanisms for plasticity exist, often at the same synapse. Second, linking cellular events to behavioral function has been hindered by a lack of sufficiently precise tools. In this review, we will discuss some of the proposed mechanisms of induction and maintenance of changes in synaptic efficacy and their regulation in the context of an attempt to understand their roles in animal behavior. Further, we will discuss recently developed genetic techniques, specifically, inducible transgenic models, which now allow more precise manipulations in the study of the roles plasticity plays in learning and memory.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Psychoticism as a dimension of personality: a multivariate genetic test of Eysenck and Eysenck's psychoticism construct.

In this study, we applied multivariate genetic analysis, a generalization of factor analysis and behavior genetic analysis, to responses to items of the Psychoticism scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire by 2,903 adult same-sex Australian twin pairs. Item loadings on genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental common and specific factors were estimated. The genetic factor structure differed considerably from the environmental structures, particularly in men. The genetic correlation between suspiciousness items and items reflecting unconventional or tough-minded attitudes or hostility to others was negative, but the environmental correlation was positive. Thus, conventional behavior genetic studies that have reported significant heritability of psychoticism, on the basis of analyses of scale scores, are misleading as to what trait is being inherited.

Adult↗