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At least 1,441 records · Page 80Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Genetic variation for oviposition behavior in Drosophila melanogaster. II. Oviposition preferences and differential survival.

Several behavioral traits connected with oviposition were studied in Drosophila melanogaster strains which ahd been kept on regular and ethanol-supplemented food. All strains preferred food with a low agar content for oviposition, though this tendency was more pronounced in an ethanol-adapted strain. Oviposition on regular and ethanol-supplemented food was tested both under choice and no-choice conditions. Though dependent on the alcohol dehydrogenase genotype adapted strains in general preferred ethanol food, while control strains preferred regular food. There was a strong tendency for oviposition on the vertical sides, when food blocks were offered. This tendency was more pronounced in the ethanol adapted strains. For egg insertion (for which the genetic basis was analyzed in the preceding paper; Kamping and van Delden, 1990), it was shown that inserted eggs laid on ethanol food hatched more often than noninserted eggs. The adaptive significance of the genetic differences in oviposition behavioral traits is discussed.

Alcohol Dehydrogenase↗
PubMed2002

Recruiting adolescents into genetic studies of smoking behavior.

The goal of this study is to describe the process of establishing a longitudinal cohort to study genetic, psychological, and social predictors of adolescent smoking. Parents of eligible adolescents were approached for their consent via mail. Seventy-two percent of parents (n = 1533 of 2120) provided a response regarding their teens' participation. Among those who provided a response, 75% (1151) agreed to allow their teen to participate in the research yielding an overall parental consent rate of 54%. Compared with parents who consented to their teens' participation, parents who declined were less educated (89% had greater than a high school education compared with 69% of those who did not provide consent), less likely to be Caucasian (68 versus 48%), and less likely to report having ever even experimented with smoking (71 versus 60%). The most frequently reported reasons parents gave for declining consent included lack of interest and confidentiality concerns. A logistic regression model predicting consent to participate revealed a significant race by education interaction, indicating that among Caucasian parents, those with an education beyond high school were over two times more likely to provide consent compared with Caucasian parents with a high school education or less (odds ratio = 2.43; confidence interval = 1.37-4.32, P = 0.003).

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine reverses the motor deficits in Pitx3-deficient aphakia mice: behavioral characterization of a novel genetic model of Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by a loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. There is a need for genetic animal models of PD for screening and in vivo testing of novel restorative therapeutic agents. Although current genetic models of PD produce behavioral impairment and nigrostriatal dysfunction, they do not reproduce the loss of midbrain dopaminergic neurons and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) reversible behavioral deficits. Here, we demonstrate that Pitx3-deficient aphakia (ak) mice, which have been shown previously to exhibit a major loss of substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons, display motor deficits that are reversed by L-DOPA and evidence of "dopaminergic supersensitivity" in the striatum. Thus, ak mice represent a novel genetic model exhibiting useful characteristics to test the efficacy of symptomatic therapies for PD and to study the functional changes in the striatum after dopamine depletion and L-DOPA treatment.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Genetically heterogeneous and selected lines of rats: behavioral and reproductive comparison.

Avoidance learning, open-field, and reproductive behaviors of a genetically heterogeneous stock (derived from a four-way cross of selected lines) were compared with the corresponding behaviors of the parental lines. The heterogeneous stock showed heterosis on the body development, fertility rate, litter size at birth and at weaning, and directional dominance on the avoidance learning and open-field measures.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Behavioral stress response of genetically selected aggressive and nonaggressive wild house mice in the shock-probe/defensive burying test.

Genetically selected aggressive and nonaggressive male wild house mice were tested in the shock-probe/defensive burying test: Five distinct behaviors (burying, immobility, rearing, grooming, and exploration) were recorded in two environmental situations: fresh and home cage sawdust. Nonaggressive animals, characterized by a Long Attack Latency (LAL), showed more immobility in both test situations than animals having Short Attack Latencies (SAL), whereas SAL males displayed more defensive burying than LAL ones when tested with fresh sawdust. Testing with home cage sawdust, however, resulted in the same duration of defensive burying in SAL and LAL. These results support earlier findings about the existence of two heritable, fundamentally different strategies to cope with aversive situations. Aggressive (SAL) animal react actively to environmental challenges, whereas nonaggressive animals react actively or passively, depending on the characteristics of the stressful environment. These mouse lines, selected for attack latency, i.e., aggression, may, therefore, be important tools to unravel the genetic architecture underlying the physiological and neuronal mechanisms of behavioral strategies towards stressful events.

Aggression↗
PubMed2005

Differential acquisition of lever pressing in inbred and outbred mice: comparison of one-lever and two-lever procedures and correlation with differences in locomotor activity.

Recent progress in mouse genetics has led to an increased interest in developing procedures for assessing mouse behavior, but relatively few of the behavioral procedures developed involve positively reinforced operant behavior. When operant methods are used, nose poking, not lever pressing, is the target response. In the current study differential acquisition of milk-reinforced lever pressing was observed in five inbred strains (C57BL/6J, DBA/2J, 129X1/SvJ, C3H/HeJ, and BALB/cJ) and one outbred stock (CD-1) of mice. Regardless of whether one or two levers (an "operative" and "inoperative" lever) were in the operant chamber, a concomitant variable-time fixed-ratio schedule of milk reinforcement established lever pressing in the majority of mice within two 120-min sessions. Substantial differences in lever pressing were observed across mice and between procedures. Adding an inoperative lever retarded acquisition in C57BL/6J, DBA/2J, 129X1/SvJ, and C3H/HeJ mice, but not in CD-1 and BALB/cJ mice. Locomotor activity was positively correlated with number of lever presses in both procedures. Analyses of durations of the subcomponents (e.g., time to move from hopper to lever) of operant behavior revealed further differences among the six types of mice. Together, the data suggest that appetitively reinforced lever pressing can be acquired rapidly in mice and that a combination of procedural, behavioral, and genetic variables contributes to this acquisition.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Dynamic genetic interactions determine odor-guided behavior in Drosophila melanogaster.

Understanding the genetic architecture of complex traits requires identification of the underlying genes and characterization of gene-by-gene and genotype-by-environment interactions. Behaviors that mediate interactions between organisms and their environment are complex traits expected to be especially sensitive to environmental conditions. Previous studies on the olfactory avoidance response of Drosophila melanogaster showed that the genetic architecture of this model behavior depends on epistatic networks of pleiotropic genes. We performed a screen of 1339 co-isogenic p[GT1]-element insertion lines to identify novel genes that contribute to odor-guided behavior and identified 55 candidate genes with known p[GT1]-element insertion sites. Characterization of the expression profiles of 10 p[GT1]-element insertion lines showed that the effects of the transposon insertions are often dependent on developmental stage and that hypomorphic mutations in developmental genes can elicit profound adult behavioral deficits. We assessed epistasis among these genes by constructing all possible double heterozygotes and measuring avoidance responses under two stimulus conditions. We observed enhancer and suppressor effects among subsets of these P-element-tagged genes, and surprisingly, epistatic interactions shifted with changes in the concentration of the olfactory stimulus. Our results show that the manifestation of epistatic networks dynamically changes with alterations in the environment.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Risk reduction behaviors and provider communication following genetic counseling and BRCA1 mutation testing in an African American kindred.

Little is known about the impact of cancer genetic counseling and testing on health behaviors in racial and ethnic subgroups. This prospective observational study examined use of risk reduction strategies following BRCA1 counseling and testing. Participants were female members of an African American kindred who received genetic education, counseling and testing (n = 40) and completed a 1-year follow-up interview. Mutation carriers were more likely to opt for breast (100%, 7/7) and ovarian (25%; 1 of 4) cancer surveillance than prophylactic surgery. Following genetic counseling, 71% (5/7) of the BRCA1 carriers who opted for surveillance reported having a mammogram within the year following receipt of their genetic test results. Ovarian cancer screening among mutation carriers increased from 0% at baseline to 25% (one of four) at 1 year. Compared to noncarriers (23%, 7/30), carriers (70%, 7/10) were more likely to discuss their BRCA1 test results with their primary health care providers. Surveillance for breast cancer was preferred to prophylactic surgery and chemoprevention as a way to reduce risk for these cancers. Our data indicate that patient-provider communication about BRCA1 test results is suboptimal.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Genetic dissection of a behavioral quantitative trait locus shows that Rgs2 modulates anxiety in mice.

Here we present a strategy to determine the genetic basis of variance in complex phenotypes that arise from natural, as opposed to induced, genetic variation in mice. We show that a commercially available strain of outbred mice, MF1, can be treated as an ultrafine mosaic of standard inbred strains and accordingly used to dissect a known quantitative trait locus influencing anxiety. We also show that this locus can be subdivided into three regions, one of which contains Rgs2, which encodes a regulator of G protein signaling. We then use quantitative complementation to show that Rgs2 is a quantitative trait gene. This combined genetic and functional approach should be applicable to the analysis of any quantitative trait.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Association of serotonin transporter promoter gene polymorphism with violence: relation with personality disorders, impulsivity, and childhood ADHD psychopathology.

There is evidence that disturbances in central serotonin (5-HT) function have a role in impulsive aggression, violence, and criminality. A deletion/insertion polymorphism within the 5-HT transporter (5-HTT) promoter gene (5-HTT gene-linked polymorphic region, 5-HTTLPR) is thought to be associated with several psychopathological phenotypes related to disturbed impulse control, anxiety and depression. This study examined the association of the 5-HTTLPR with violent behavior in a sample of 153 male Caucasians referred for a forensic psychiatric examination. We found a significant excess of the short (s) allele and the s/s genotype in patients characterized by recurrent and overt physical violent behavior. This genetic variance explained 5% of the variance of violent behavior. When controlled for the impact of several psychopathologies related to violent behavior, this association was observed in individuals with a history of childhood attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related symptoms, but not presenting with personality disorder or increased impulsiveness. In conclusion, the results (i). suggest an association between serotonergic dysfunction and violent behavior, (ii). provide evidence for an-at least partial-genetic regulation of violent behavior in a subgroup of male offenders, and (iii). suggest a significant role for 5-HT transporter functionality for violent behavior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Temporal patterns of fruit fly (Drosophila) evolution revealed by mutation clocks.

Drosophila melanogaster has been a canonical model organism to study genetics, development, behavior, physiology, evolution, and population genetics for nearly a century. Despite this emphasis and the completion of its nuclear genome sequence, the timing of major speciation events leading to the origin of this fruit fly remain elusive because of the paucity of extensive fossil records and biogeographic data. Use of molecular clocks as an alternative has been fraught with non-clock-like accumulation of nucleotide and amino-acid substitutions. Here we present a novel methodology in which genomic mutation distances are used to overcome these limitations and to make use of all available gene sequence data for constructing a fruit fly molecular time scale. Our analysis of 2977 pairwise sequence comparisons from 176 nuclear genes reveals a long-term fruit fly mutation clock ticking at a rate of 11.1 mutations per kilobase pair per Myr. Genomic mutation clock-based timings of the landmark speciation events leading to the evolution of D. melanogaster show that it shared most recent common ancestry 5.4 MYA with D. simulans, 12.6 MYA with D. erecta+D. orena, 12.8 MYA with D. yakuba+D. teisseri, 35.6 MYA with the takahashii subgroup, 41.3 MYA with the montium subgroup, 44.2 MYA with the ananassae subgroup, 54.9 MYA with the obscura group, 62.2 MYA with the willistoni group, and 62.9 MYA with the subgenus Drosophila. These and other estimates are compatible with those known from limited biogeographic and fossil records. The inferred temporal pattern of fruit fly evolution shows correspondence with the cooling patterns of paleoclimate changes and habitat fragmentation in the Cenozoic.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Single-cell microbiology: tools, technologies, and applications.

The field of microbiology has traditionally been concerned with and focused on studies at the population level. Information on how cells respond to their environment, interact with each other, or undergo complex processes such as cellular differentiation or gene expression has been obtained mostly by inference from population-level data. Individual microorganisms, even those in supposedly "clonal" populations, may differ widely from each other in terms of their genetic composition, physiology, biochemistry, or behavior. This genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity has important practical consequences for a number of human interests, including antibiotic or biocide resistance, the productivity and stability of industrial fermentations, the efficacy of food preservatives, and the potential of pathogens to cause disease. New appreciation of the importance of cellular heterogeneity, coupled with recent advances in technology, has driven the development of new tools and techniques for the study of individual microbial cells. Because observations made at the single-cell level are not subject to the "averaging" effects characteristic of bulk-phase, population-level methods, they offer the unique capacity to observe discrete microbiological phenomena unavailable using traditional approaches. As a result, scientists have been able to characterize microorganisms, their activities, and their interactions at unprecedented levels of detail.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

The different paths to age one hundred.

Attaining age 100 is a rare event in industrialized nations, occurring in 1 person per 10,000 in the population. Becoming a centenarian does not appear to be rare because the individual genetic or behavioral factors (such as specific genetic polymorphisms or lack of specific toxic exposures) that enable such longevity are rare, but rather because having the adequate combination of these factors is rare.

Aged, 80 and over↗
PubMed2006

Cognitive aging in zebrafish.

BACKGROUND: Age-related impairments in cognitive functions represent a growing clinical and social issue. Genetic and behavioral characterization of animal models can provide critical information on the intrinsic and environmental factors that determine the deterioration or preservation of cognitive abilities throughout life. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Behavior of wild-type, mutant and gamma-irradiated zebrafish (Danio rerio) was documented using image-analysis technique. Conditioned responses to spatial, visual and temporal cues were investigated in young, middle-aged and old animals. The results demonstrate that zebrafish aging is associated with changes in cognitive responses to emotionally positive and negative experiences, reduced generalization of adaptive associations, increased stereotypic and reduced exploratory behavior and altered temporal entrainment. Genetic upregulation of cholinergic transmission attenuates cognitive decline in middle-aged achesb55/+ mutants, compared to wild-type siblings. In contrast, the genotoxic stress of gamma-irradiation accelerates the onset of cognitive impairment in young zebrafish. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These findings would allow the use of powerful molecular biological resources accumulated in the zebrafish field to address the mechanisms of cognitive senescence, and promote the search for therapeutic strategies which may attenuate age-related cognitive decline.

Acetylcholinesterase↗
PubMed1989

[Sociobiology].

Sociobiology represents a systematic study of the biological basis of social behavior. Suggesting its relations to genetics, psychiatry, the theory of games, and ethology, the author summarizes the main sociobiological postulates. The review is intended for postgraduate education.

Animals↗