Importance of strain differences in evaluations of learning and memory processes in null mutants

Abstract

Complex behaviors such as learning and memory are regulated by multigenic systems. The advent of new animal models created by recombinant DNA technology has provided a set of genetic tools whereby the role of specific candidate genes in acquisition and retention of new information can be examined. These techniques include the creation of null mutant mice. Because of the polygenic nature of complex behaviors, the impact of single gene manipulations will in part depend on the genetic background of the mouse. This review addresses the relationship of endogenous strain differences in complex learning performance using a number of learning and memory paradigms to the analyses of null mutants. Limitations to the current technology and possible future advances are discussed. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Behavioral profiles of inbred strains on novel olfactory, spatial and emotional tests for reference memory in mice

“…In summary, the present data provide important information on the behavioral performance of inbred strains commonly used as genetic backgrounds in gene mutant mouse studies on three recently adapted tests for cognition. The data also extend previous literature on strain comparisons for other learning and memory tests (Wehner & Silva 1996; Crawley et al . 1997), and molecular (Zilles et al .…”

“…2000). More generally, these findings reinforce the notion that genetic differences affecting motor, sensory, emotional and motivational phenotypes can strongly affect performance on tests for cognition (Wehner & Silva 1996; Owen et al . 1997; Crawley 1999, 2000).…”

Behavioral characterization of mice lacking the ubiquitin ligase UBR1 of the N‐End rule pathway

“…using associative learning mechanisms to memorize a series of left/right turns), the mice used in this study employed this type of strategy more effectively during recall of the path to the goal box. The final explanation of these disparate results is that we observed a classic gene by genetic background interactions (Wehner & Silva 1996). It is unclear why this was observed only in the Lashley III maze.…”

Strain distribution of mice in discriminated Y-maze avoidance learning: Genetic and procedural differences.

“…The C57BL/6 mouse has been shown to perform adequately on a variety of learning tasks. In addition, the performance of the C57BL/6 mouse on many learning tasks (including the avoidance task used in the present study) is such that both impairments as well as improvements can be observed (Crawley, and Paylor, 1997; Wehner & Silva, 1996). However, C57BL/6 mice may be inappropriate for other tasks, such as anxiety-related behaviors (Ramos & Mormede, 1998), in which these mice perform poorly.…”