Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Genetics, Behavioral”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 451 records · Page 25Linked to original sources
PubMed2006

The genetic contribution to canine personality.

The domestic dog may be exceptionally well suited for behavioral genetic studies owing to its population history and the striking behavior differences among breeds. To explore to what extent and how behavioral traits are transmitted between generations, heritabilities and genetic correlations for behavioral traits were estimated in a cohort containing over 10,000 behaviorally tested German shepherd and Rottweiler dogs. In both breeds, the pattern of co-inheritance was found to be similar for the 16 examined behavioral traits. Furthermore, over 50% of the additive genetic variation of the behavioral traits could be explained by one underlying principal component, indicating a shared genetic component behind most of the examined behavioral traits. Only aggression appears to be inherited independently of the other traits. The results support a genetic basis for a broad personality trait previously named shyness-boldness dimension, and heritability was estimated to be 0.25 in the two breeds. Therefore, breeds of dogs appear to constitute a valuable resource for behavioral genetic research on the normal behavioral differences in broad personality traits.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Fate and behavior of genetically labeled cerebellar cells after transplantation into mouse cerebellum.

A foreign gene coding the bacterial enzyme, chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT), was introduced into a primary culture of the mouse cerebellar primordium by a retrovirus vector which harbors the neomycin-resistant gene. Following selection of the gene-transferred cells based on neomycin resistance, most of the selected cells expressed the CAT gene product as well as a marker for astrocytes, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), when examined immunocytochemically. These cells were transplanted into the adult mouse cerebellum, and the surviving cells were examined immunohistochemically by marking them with anti-CAT antibody. The distribution of CAT-immunopositive cells coincided with that of GFAP-immunopositive cells observed in serial sections of grafted sites at 10 days after transplantation. Some of the transplanted CAT-immunopositive cells extended processes and exhibited the morphological appearance of fibrous astrocytes. Migration of the genetically labeled cells into the host molecular layer was also observed and the morphological plasticity of the differentiated primary cells was shown according to the grafted sites. These results indicate that stable marking of cells for grafting can be accomplished by retrovirus-mediated introduction of a foreign gene into the primary culture, and that the fate and behavior of the labeled donor cells can be analyzed immunohistochemically following transplantation into neural tissue.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Role of the family in the onset and outcome of childhood disorders: selected research findings.

OBJECTIVE: Three areas of basic family research were selected for review as being of special importance to the clinically oriented child and adolescent psychiatrist: behavioral genetics, expressed emotion, and the interaction of family dynamics and childhood illness. METHOD: Medline and PSYCINFO searches using appropriate keywords were obtained for each of the 3 major areas. All English-language articles published after 1989 that included empirical research pertaining to children or adolescents were reviewed. RESULTS: Behavioral genetics research indicates that the shared environment, including issues of parental monitoring and discipline, is important in the development and outcome of externalizing disorders. Differential parental treatments of one sibling are critical in internalizing disorders. Criticism (as measured by expressed emotion) is associated with poor outcome of many childhood medical and psychiatric disorders. Chronic illness in a child changes the family dynamics toward being more structured and less emotionally warm and communicative. The family's role in adherence to treatment is critical, and families with high levels of criticism have more difficulty. CONCLUSIONS: Families can cause problems, but many times the problems families have are in response to a child's problems. There is a continued need to empirically assess which family processes are important for specific childhood disorders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Host-plant specialization in the Drosophila melanogaster species complex: a physiological, behavioral, and genetical analysis.

Drosophila sechellia, endemic to the Seychelles, breeds in a single resource, Morinda citrifolia, whereas its close sympatric relative, Drosophila simulans, is a cosmopolitan generalist breeding in a great variety of resources. The effects of morinda on various fitness traits of these two species, their F1 hybrids, and reciprocal backcrosses were analyzed. Morinda fruit is highly toxic to Drosophila species, except D. sechellia. The toxicity is expressed in adults, embryos, and larvae. In embryos, early mortality is a maternally inherited trait, depending only on mother's genotype. The tolerance of D. sechellia to morinda is fully dominant in F1 hybrids. Egg production is stimulated by morinda in D. sechellia but inhibited in D. simulans; in hybrids, the inhibition observed in D. simulans is dominant. Morinda is an oviposition attractant for D. sechellia but a repellent for D. simulans; F1 hybrids and backcross individuals exhibit intermediate, approximately additive, behavior. In the field, adult flies of the two species exhibit opposite behavior in that D. sechellia is attracted to morinda and D. simulans is attracted to banana; hybrids have an intermediate behavior. These differences between the species explain why they do not hybridize in nature although living in sympatry. The various traits have different genetic bases: three or four different genes, or groups of genes, differentiate the ecological niches of the two species.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

Medical and human genetics 1977: trends and directions.

Our field is in a rapid state of evolution. The broader concerns of human genetics not of immediate medical interest such as behavioral genetics are often investigated by persons not trained or identified as human geneticists. Both medical genetics and human genetics in general have prospered when various biologic techniques have been applied to genetic concepts. A search for novel biologic methods may provide new insights and may bridge the gulf between Mendelian and biometric approaches in studies of behavior and of common diseases. Medical geneticists need to broaden their fields of interest to encompass other fields than those of pediatric interest alone. We need to attract more basic scientists. Our field is evolving from a largely research oriented science to a service-oriented specialty. This logical development is a sign of increasing maturity and makes available to the public the results of our research. The resulting stresses and strains need careful watching to prevent their slowing the momentum of our science which can contribute continued insights into the many problems of behavior, health, and disease.

Genetic Diseases, Inborn↗
PubMed2004

Genetically-based behavioral traits influence the effects of Shuttle Box avoidance overtraining and extinction upon intertrial responding: a study with the Roman rat strains.

In the present study, we evaluated the effects of extended exposure procedures to contextual fear cues as a way of reducing intertrial responses (ITRs), a characteristic stereotyped behavior displayed in 2-way Shuttle Box avoidance overtraining. We used rat strains psychogenetically selected for efficient (Roman high-avoidance; RHA) versus poor 2-way Shuttle Box performance (Roman low-avoidance; RLA), the former being fearless/impulsive relative to the latter. Additionally, Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were compared with RHAs to have a measure of the ITRs exhibited by another, non-selected group of animals. The main findings were that after extended exposure RHAs diminished their ITRs without affecting avoidance performance, although they emitted a pattern of ITRs somewhat excessive as compared with SDs. We concluded that three factors could influence the expression of ITRs in RHA rats: (1) the repetitive and stereotyped responding induced by 2-way Shuttle Box overtraining; (2) contextual fear conditioning; and (3) a genetic background associated with high impulsiveness.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Behavioral and genetic interrelationships between locomotor activity and brain biogenic amines.

1. Spontaneous locomotor activity of four mouse strains, the albino ICR, BALB/C, the black C57 BL/6 and the brown CDF-I, was studied in conjunction with whole brain content of select biogenic amines and major metabolites. The ICR and C57BL/6 mice scored the highest and lowest motility among the strains studied, respectively. 2. The ICR mice motility were the most sensitive to experimental stress among the mouse strains evaluated. 3. Brain dopamine concentrations were greater in ICR and CDF-I mice than the other two mouse strains. This is compared to high serotonin and 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid levels determined in C57BL/6. 4. A relationship between the ICR mouse strain with a high motility and the ratios of brain dopamine:homovanillic acid and between serotonin:5-hydroxyindole acetic acid was established. 5. An inverse relationship between ICR mice motility and the ratio of metanephrine and normetanephrine:3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG) was determined. 6. It is concluded that genetic predisposition may account for a relationship between motor activity and brain biogenic amines which may give insight into the susceptibility of different patients to the development of certain extrapyramidal diseases.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Genetics and criminology: a new concept].

The early history of criminology was one of interaction with genetics and biology, but since the sociological school emerged in the 1920's there has occurred a major split between sociological criminology and biology. Behavioral genetics as it has developed since 1950 has great relevance to criminology in terms of neurological and brain functioning, learning processes, violence and the XYY syndrome, and the sociopathy. A new interdisciplinary research effort must be undertaken in order to look at the interaction of genetics, human behavior, criminal law and criminology. If criminology is interested in learning, motivation, aggression and behavior, it must incorporate the new genetics into its theoretical structure.

Aggression↗
PubMed2006

E-cadherin missense mutations, associated with hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC) syndrome, display distinct invasive behaviors and genetic interactions with the Wnt and Notch pathways in Drosophila epithelia.

Germline mutations in the human E-cadherin (hEcad) gene, CDH1, are initiating events in cases of human hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC) indicating that hEcad is a tumor suppressor. Among the hEcad mutations identified so far, some are missense, but the pathological relevance of these missense mutants is still unclear. In vitro assays show that missense mutations result in full-length hEcad molecules that retain some distinct biological activity, but in vivo functional studies in animal models are still lacking. Here we verify the potential of a Drosophila model to in vivo characterize the functional consequences of HDGC-associated germline missense mutations and to identify signaling pathways affected by these mutations. To this end, we have generated transgenic fly strains expressing the wild-type hEcad gene or its missense mutations. Similar to the fly Ecad, expression of wild-type hEcad and missense forms in fly epithelia resulted in their localization to the subapical region. In addition, we verify a genotype-phenotype correlation associated to the specific domain affected by the mutations, because cells expressing normal or missense mutant hEcad display different migratory and invasive behaviors in fly epithelia. We show that some of these effects might be mediated through hEcad interacting with the endogenous fly ss-catenin, Armadillo, thus interfering with the Wnt signaling pathway. Therefore, the use of this simple in vivo system will contribute to characterize the effects that missense hEcad have on cell behavior in a tissue environment, and might help to understand their significance in gastric cancer onset.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Inheritance of GFP-Bt transgenes from Brassica napus in backcrosses with three wild B. rapa accessions.

Transgenes from transgenic oilseed rape, Brassica napus (AACC genome), can introgress into populations of wild B. rapa (AA genome), but little is known about the long-term persistence of transgenes from different transformation events. For example, transgenes that are located on the crop's C chromosomes may be lost during the process of introgression. We investigated the genetic behavior of transgenes in backcross generations of wild B. rapa after nine GFP (green fluorescent protein)-Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) B. napus lines, named GT lines, were hybridized with three wild B. rapa accessions, respectively. Each backcross generation involved crosses between hemizygous GT plants and non-GT B. rapa pollen recipients. In some cases, sample sizes were too small to allow the detection of major deviations from Mendelian segregation ratios, but the segregation of GT:non-GT was consistent with an expected ratio of 1:1 in all crosses in the BC1 generation. Starting with the BC2 generation, significantly different genetic behavior of the transgenes was observed among the nine GT B. napus lines. In some lines, the segregation of GT:non-GT showed a ratio of 1:1 in the BC2, BC3, and BC4 generations. However, in other GT B. napus lines the segregation ratio of GT:non-GT significantly deviated from 1:1 in the BC2 and BC3 generations, which had fewer transgenic progeny than expected, but not in the BC4 generation. Most importantly, in two GT B. napus lines the segregation of GT:non-GT did not fit into a ratio of 1:1 in the BC2, BC3 or BC4 generations due to a deficiency of transgenic progeny. For these lines, a strong reduction of transgene introgression was observed in all three B. rapa accessions. These findings imply that the genomic location of transgenes in B. napus may affect the long-term persistence of transgenes in B. rapa after hybridization has occurred.

Bacillus thuringiensis↗
PubMed1981

Unitary personality source traits analyzed for heritability.

1,768 12- to 18-year-old boys, in pairs from five constellations (identical and fraternal twins, brothers, unrelated boys raised together and a random general population sample) were measured by the O-A (performance) personality battery on source traits UI 16, 17 and 19. Corrections were made for ages and test validities in computing observed variances. Nine equations were set up in the multiple abstract variance (MAVA) model giving expectancies from seven unknown abstract variances (genetic, threptic, and genothreptic covariances) with respect to observed variances. Maximum likelihood analysis showed that genetic or threptic contribution alone was unable to fit the data, and the best fit was given by a parsimonious form of MAVA dropping genothreptic correlations. Population heritabilities calculated on this basis were 0.46 for UI 16 (ego assertion), 0.21 for UI 17 (control, upbringing), and 0.50 for UI 19 (independence). When compared with an earlier study by the O-A, but by a different analysis, and with the same data analyzed by tho other methods, a reasonably consistent conclusion emerges that UI 17 is little inherited, while UI 16 and UI 19 are rather strongly inherited. The contribution of the behavior-genetic evidence to the theories about these source traits is discussed. It is concluded that UI 16 is initially in development a temperament factor, probably with physiological associations in metabolic rate, etc.; that UI 19 is a strong and sex-related temperament factor, and that UI 17 is a sentiment pattern of cultured inhibition almost wholly dependent on family and social upbringing.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

A method to assess the environment for genetic studies: the Common Environment Index and the Household Relationships Interview.

Genetic and environmental influences in causing a disease are difficult to measure because of lack of precision in identification of relevant nongenetic variables. The Household Relationships Interview and Schedule was developed to measure shared common environment in families (Common Environment Index) and to take into account developmental stages throughout the life cycle and separation/disruption. Seven trained persons interviewed three individuals who reported fictitious interrelated life histories varying in length and complexity. Discrepancies between the recorded data and the true data were analyzed. Overall 96.1% of the items were recorded correctly. Thus, the method has shown good face and construct validity and reliability for measuring quantity of time shared by relatives in a common household. Common environment as measured by this instrument should be a particularly useful tool in behavior-genetic studies.

Environment↗
PubMed2005

Behavioral and molecular genetic contributions to a dimensional classification of personality disorder.

This article examines the possible contribution of behavioral and molecular genetic research to the development of a dimensional classification of personality disorder. It is argued that the results of molecular studies are too preliminary to have immediate nosological significance. However, behavioral genetic methods could play a useful role in constructing a classification that reflects the genetic architecture of personality disorder. It is also argued that the best approach to constructing a valid classification would be to integrate behavioral genetic methods with the construct validation framework used in test construction. An integrative approach is proposed that seeks to combine constructs from alternative dimensional models. It is suggested that strong evidence of a four-dimensional structure to personality disorder provides a way to organize a preliminary model. An initial set of primary traits to define these secondary domains would then be compiled from existing models and refined using a combination of traditional psychometric analyses and behavioral genetic methods. It is concluded that an etiologically based classification is feasible for the DSM-V.

Genetics, Behavioral↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Regulation of operant ethanol-reinforced behavior is genetically independent of regulation of withdrawal severity in WSP and WSR mice.

Selectively bred withdrawal seizure prone (WSP1 and WSP2) and withdrawal seizure resistant (WSR1 and WSR2) mice were used to test the extent to which severity of ethanol withdrawal response is predictive of the reinforcing effects of ethanol. Mice were systematically introduced to ethanol under a fixed ratio 1 (FR 1) schedule using adjunctive drinking methods. There were no significant differences in ethanol consumption between the lines during training. Subsequently, responding for ethanol concentrations of 8%, 0% (vehicle control), and 8% retest under a FR 1 schedule in the absence of food induction was measured. Group data showed that ethanol did not serve as a reinforcer in the test phase within any of the four lines, and there were no significant line differences in rate of responding, intake, or blood ethanol concentrations (BEC). Mice were next tested for responding for ethanol under a FR 4 schedule. Again, ethanol did not serve as a reinforcer for any of the four groups, and there were no significant differences between the lines. However, further analysis showed that there were individual differences in responding within each group, some animals were apparently reinforced by ethanol, while others showed no reinforcement and some appeared to avoid ethanol. There was no systematic pattern within or between groups for these individual differences in responding. Thus, both the group results as well as the behavior patterns of individual animals are consistent with the conclusion that genes regulating rewarding effects of ethanol appear to be segregating randomly across groups and are independent of genes mediating ethanol withdrawal severity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Genetic and behavioral analysis of flagellar switch mutants of Salmonella typhimurium.

At the interface between the sensory transduction system and the flagellar motor system of Salmonella typhimurium, the switch complex plays an important role in both sensory transduction and energy transduction. To examine the function of the switch complex, we isolated from 10 cheY mutants 500 pseudorevertants with a suppressor mutation in one of the three genes (fliG, fliM, and fliN) encoding the switch complex. Detailed mapping revealed that these suppressor mutations were localized to several segments of each switch gene, suggesting localization of functional sites on the switch complex. These switch mutations were introduced into the wild-type background and into a chemotaxis deletion background. Behavior of the pseudorevertants and their derivatives (1,500 strains in all) was observed by light microscopy. In the chemotaxis deletion background, about 70% of the switch mutants showed smooth swimming and the rest showed more or less tumbly swimming. There was some correlation between the mutational sites and the swimming patterns in the chemotaxis deletion background, suggesting that there is segregation of functional sites on the switch complex. The interaction of the switch complex with the chemotaxis protein, CheY, and the stochastic nature of switching in the absence of CheY are discussed.

Alleles↗
PubMed1984

[Effect of cold adaptation on the feeding behavior of genetically obese Zucker rats].

A diurnal hyperphagia is certainly the main factor of adiposity in the genetically obese Zucker fa/fa rat. In a previous experiment it was observed that cold-acclimatization suppressed hyperphagia and stopped the increase in obesity. In this work, the chronology of modification in the feeding pattern is studied during the first month of cold exposure (10 degrees C). The main cold-induced modifications are observed after 2 weeks of cold exposure. Possibly the decrease in metabolic efficiency of food could parallel the cold-induced enhancement of energetic capacity of brown adipose tissue which has been described elsewhere. This tissue could play a role in the obesity of the Zucker rat.

Acclimatization↗