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Anxiety and Fear in a cross of C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice: mapping overlapping and independent QTL for related traits
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Anxiety and Fear in a cross of C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice: mapping overlapping and independent QTL for related traits

Greta Sokoloff, Clarissa C Parker, Jackie E Lim and Abraham A Palmer
Genes, brain and behavior, Vol.10(5), pp.604-614
05/31/2011
DOI: 10.1111/j.1601-183X.2011.00699.x
PMCID: PMC3756832
PMID: 21554534
url
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1601-183X.2011.00699.xView
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Anxiety, like other psychiatric disorders, is a complex neurobehavioral trait, making identification of causal genes difficult. In the present study, we examined anxiety-like behavior and fear conditioning in an F 2 intercross of C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice. We identified numerous quantitative trait loci (QTL) influencing anxiety-like behavior in both open field and fear conditioning tests. Many of these QTL mapped back to the same chromosomal regions, regardless of behavior or test. For example, highly significant overlapping QTL on chromosome 1 were found in all fear conditioning measures as well as in center time measures in the open field. Other QTL exhibited strong temporal profiles over testing, highlighting dynamic relationship between genotype, test and changes in behavior. Next, we implemented a factor analysis design to account for the correlated nature of the behaviors measured. Open field and fear conditioning behaviors loaded onto four main factors representing both anxiety and fear behaviors. Using multiple QTL modeling we calculated the percent variance in anxiety and fear explained by multiple QTL using both additive and interactive terms. QTL modeling resulted in a broad description of the genetic architecture underlying anxiety and fear accounting for 14-37% of trait variance. Factor analysis and multiple QTL modeling revealed both unique and shared QTL for anxiety and fear; suggesting a partially overlapping genetic architecture for these two different models of anxiety.
Anxiety Fear Fear Conditioning Mice Open Field QTL QTL Modeling

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