Fine scale mapping of a genetic locus for conditioned fear (original) (raw)

Abstract

Fear conditioning is one of a number of models for investigating the genetic basis of individual variation in emotion and learning. Genetic mapping using crosses between strains of laboratory mice has identified a locus on chromosome one that appears to influence not only variation in conditioned fear, but also in other validated tests of fear-related behaviour, (including the open-field and the elevated-plus maze), suggesting that the rodent locus may act in ways consistent with how a locus influencing susceptibility to anxiety in humans is believed to operate. Here we use high-resolution mapping in genetically heterogeneous mice to show that a quantitative trait locus influencing conditioned fear can be separated from loci influencing open-field activity. Mapping in two different heterogeneous stocks, the Boulder and Northport HS, gave similar map locations for open-field activity at two positions on the current mouse physical map, one at 162 Mb on chromosome one (negative log _P_-value 5.4) the other at 173 Mb (negative log _P_-value 4.8), while mapping of contextual conditioned fear in the Boulder HS identified a locus at 170 Mb (negative log _P_-value 5.4). Estimates of the 95% confidence intervals show that the locations do not overlap. The region containing a gene or genes that influence variation in conditioned fear is approximately 1 megabase in size and contains only one gene of known function, a pre-B cell leukaemia factor.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK, , , , ,
    Christopher J. Talbot
  2. Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA, , , , ,
    Richard A. Radcliffe & Jeanne M. Wehner
  3. Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK, , , , ,
    Jan Fullerton & Jonathan Flint
  4. Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, Oregon 97201-3098, USA, , , , ,
    Robert Hitzemann

Authors

  1. Christopher J. Talbot
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  2. Richard A. Radcliffe
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  3. Jan Fullerton
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  4. Robert Hitzemann
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  5. Jeanne M. Wehner
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  6. Jonathan Flint
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Talbot, C., Radcliffe, R., Fullerton, J. _et al._Fine scale mapping of a genetic locus for conditioned fear .Mamm Genome 14, 223–230 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00335-002-3059-5

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