Behavioral and Adrenocortical Responses to Open-Field Test in Rats Selected for Reduced Aggressiveness Toward Humans

Plyusnina, I. Z.; Oskina, I. N.

doi:10.1016/s0031-9384(96)00445-3

Cited by 91 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…About 30% of the animals from each generation were selected on the basis of the level of tameness and defensive aggression they displayed in response to humans on a five-point scale (Naumenko et al 1989;Plyusnina and Oskina 1997). Inbreeding was kept at a minimum by avoiding mating closely related individuals.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic Architecture of Tameness in a Rat Model of Animal Domestication

et al. 2009

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A common feature of domestic animals is tameness-i.e., they tolerate and are unafraid of human presence and handling. To gain insight into the genetic basis of tameness and aggression, we studied an intercross between two lines of rats (Rattus norvegicus) selected over .60 generations for increased tameness and increased aggression against humans, respectively. We measured 45 traits, including tameness and aggression, anxiety-related traits, organ weights, and levels of serum components in .700 rats from an intercross population. Using 201 genetic markers, we identified two significant quantitative trait loci (QTL) for tameness. These loci overlap with QTL for adrenal gland weight and for anxiety-related traits and are part of a five-locus epistatic network influencing tameness. An additional QTL influences the occurrence of white coat spots, but shows no significant effect on tameness. The loci described here are important starting points for finding the genes that cause tameness in these rats and potentially in domestic animals in general.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic Architecture of Tameness in a Rat Model of Animal Domestication

et al. 2009

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“…Rats (Rattus norvegicus) were obtained from a longrunning selection experiment in Novosibirsk, Russia (Naumenko et al, 1989;Plyusnina and Oskina, 1997). Beginning from one wild-caught population, two lines of rats had been generated by selecting for the absence of aggressive behavior towards humans (the 'tame' line) or for increased aggression towards humans (the 'aggressive' line).…”

Section: Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The 'tame' rats calmly tolerate human presence and handling, whereas the 'aggressive' rats ferociously attack or flee from an approaching human hand (Naumenko et al, 1989;Plyusnina and Oskina, 1997;Albert et al, 2008). Several features distinguish this model system from other commonly used experimental rodent models.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeted resequencing of a genomic region influencing tameness and aggression reveals multiple signals of positive selection

et al. 2011

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The identification of the causative genetic variants in quantitative trait loci (QTL) influencing phenotypic traits is challenging, especially in crosses between outbred strains. We have previously identified several QTL influencing tameness and aggression in a cross between two lines of wild-derived, outbred rats (Rattus norvegicus) selected for their behavior towards humans. Here, we use targeted sequence capture and massively parallel sequencing of all genes in the strongest QTL in the founder animals of the cross. We identify many novel sequence variants, several of which are potentially functionally relevant. The QTL contains several regions where either the tame or the aggressive founders contain no sequence variation, and two regions where alternative haplotypes are fixed between the founders. A re-analysis of the QTL signal showed that the causative site is likely to be fixed among the tame founder animals, but that several causative alleles may segregate among the aggressive founder animals. Using a formal test for the detection of positive selection, we find 10 putative positively selected regions, some of which are close to genes known to influence behavior. Together, these results show that the QTL is probably not caused by a single selected site, but may instead represent the joint effects of several sites that were targets of polygenic selection.

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“…They tolerate handling and sometimes actively explore the approaching hand. The strong behavioral selection has resulted in a number of differences in morphology, neurotransmitters, and hormone levels (Naumenko et al 1989;Plyusnina and Oskina 1997;Albert et al 2008).Cross fostering experiments excluded postnatal maternal effects as a major influence on tameness and aggression in these animals, suggesting a substantial genetic contribution to the behavior (Albert et al 2008;Plyusnina et al 2009). To gain insight into the genetic basis of tameness and associated phenotypes, we earlier bred an F 2 intercross between the tame and aggressive rat lines (Albert et al 2009).…”

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Genetic Influences on Brain Gene Expression in Rats Selected for Tameness and Aggression

Heyne

Lautenschlaeger²,

Nelson

et al. 2014

Preprint

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Interindividual differences in many behaviors are partly due to genetic differences, but the identification of the genes and variants that influence behavior remains challenging. Here, we studied an F 2 intercross of two outbred lines of rats selected for tame and aggressive behavior toward humans for .64 generations. By using a mapping approach that is able to identify genetic loci segregating within the lines, we identified four times more loci influencing tameness and aggression than by an approach that assumes fixation of causative alleles, suggesting that many causative loci were not driven to fixation by the selection. We used RNA sequencing in 150 F 2 animals to identify hundreds of loci that influence brain gene expression. Several of these loci colocalize with tameness loci and may reflect the same genetic variants. Through analyses of correlations between allele effects on behavior and gene expression, differential expression between the tame and aggressive rat selection lines, and correlations between gene expression and tameness in F 2 animals, we identify the genes Gltscr2, Lgi4, Zfp40, and Slc17a7 as candidate contributors to the strikingly different behavior of the tame and aggressive animals. B EHAVIORAL differences among members of a species are in part due to genetic variation. The identification of the genes and variants that influence behavior remains challenging. In human genome-wide association studies of psychiatric and cognitive traits, the identified loci typically explain only a small fraction of the heritability, i.e., the additive genetic contribution to the trait (Watanabe et al. 2007;Hovatta and Barlow 2008;Deary et al. 2009;Otowa et al. 2009;Calboli et al. 2010;Terracciano et al. 2010;Flint and Munafo 2013;Rietveld et al. 2013;Sokolowska and Hovatta 2013). In experimental crosses in model species, especially between inbred lines, the identified loci (termed quantitative trait loci, QTL), often explain much more of the heritability (Lynch and Walsh 1998). However, in this design the spatial resolution is limited-the QTL are wide and contain many, sometimes hundreds of genes. With the exception of a handful of identified genes with quantitative effects on behavioral traits (Yalcin et al. 2004;Watanabe et al. 2007;McGrath et al. 2009;Bendesky et al. 2012;Goodson et al. 2012), gene identification is particularly difficult for behavioral QTL that often have modest effect sizes (Flint 2003;Willis-Owen and Flint 2006;Wright et al. 2006;Hovatta and Barlow 2008).The causal variants within a QTL can alter the protein sequence encoded by a gene or affect gene expression. Such Musunuru et al. 2010). A few eQTL studies have also recently been carried out to identify candidate genes for behavioral QTL (Hitzemann et al. 2004;De Jong et al. 2011;Saba et al. 2011;Kelly et al. 2012).Here, we studied two lines of rats (Rattus norvegicus) that, starting from one wild population, have been selected for increased tameness and increased aggression toward humans, respectively. These experimental...

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Behavioral and Adrenocortical Responses to Open-Field Test in Rats Selected for Reduced Aggressiveness Toward Humans

Cited by 91 publications

References 19 publications

Genetic Architecture of Tameness in a Rat Model of Animal Domestication

Genetic Architecture of Tameness in a Rat Model of Animal Domestication

Targeted resequencing of a genomic region influencing tameness and aggression reveals multiple signals of positive selection

Genetic Influences on Brain Gene Expression in Rats Selected for Tameness and Aggression

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