title: Self-administration of ethanol: towards the location of predisposing polygenes in quasi-congenic animal models.
abstract: Alcohol consumption by C57BL/6By background and BALB/cJ donor strains, and by two recently developed quasi-congenic QTL-introgression strains, which share about 96% of their genes with the background strain, was studied in a limited access paradigm. Alcohol and water were offered for 60 min per day using modified pipettes on a drinking cage. Increasing concentration of alcohol solutions, 3, 6, and 12%, were given for days 1-7, 8-14, and 15-22, respectively. Consumption of the 12% alcohol solution was highest in C57BL/6By (0.72 g/kg/h), lowest in BALB/cJ (0.14 g/kg/h). The B6.Cb4i5 beta 13 quasi-congenic strain, in spite of its genetic similarity to the C57BL/6By background strain, consumed significantly less alcohol (0.41 g/kg/h) than the background strain. The results suggest that polygenes that reduce alcohol consumption were introgressed from the BALB/cJ donor strain into the C57BL/6By background strain, and that the b4i5 series of the B6.C quasi-congenic QTL-introgression strains may be useful in mapping genes that influence alcohol-related behaviors. Locations of the introgressed candidate polygenes were tentatively identified by analyzing microsatellite maps of two of the quasi-congenic strains.
authors.affiliation: Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vadász
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fleischer
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: LaFrancois
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Mao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004326:Drinking; D000431:Ethanol / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D012646:Self Administration; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol