Level and shape of sequences of motor behavior in inbred and hybrid mice.
Three-hundred seventy-five mice of six inbred strains and their F1 hybrid crosses were observed in a barrier apparatus. Frequencies of jumping over barriers were recorded at each of ten 30-sec intervals. Graphs plotted of mean jumps at each time point show several F1 curves with an apparently adaptive pattern: low frequencies of jumps at start, gradually rising, then leveling off. Nine out of 15 F1 curves also show evidence of heterosis: jumping frequencies of hybrids exceed those of parent strains. Lack of heterosis was peculiar to crosses in which C57BL/6 was one of the parents. A coefficient of convexity C was developed to quantify the shapes of the temporal patterns of proportions of animals engaged in jumping at a given point in the sequence. F1 curves (unlike inbred strains) were found, on the whole, to be negatively convex.
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D005260:Female; D005824:Genetics, Behavioral; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008806:Mice, Inbred AKR / Q000235:genetics; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H / Q000235:genetics; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL / Q000235:genetics; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA / Q000235:genetics; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains / Q000235:genetics*; D009043:Motor Activity; D013997:Time Factors