title: Identification of quantitative trait loci involved in contextual and auditory-cued fear conditioning in BXD recombinant inbred strains.
abstract: Fear conditioning shows associations formed between contextual or auditory stimuli with an unconditioned stimulus. Inbred mouse strains differ in their ability to demonstrate fear conditioning, suggesting at least a partial genetic influence. The present study identified the possible chromosomal loci regulating fear conditioning in BXD recombinant inbred strains using quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis. Estimates of heritability for all 3 measures of conditioning were about .28. Correlational analyses between genetic markers and strain means identified multiple putative QTLs. The strongest associations were on Chromosomes 1 and 17 for freezing to the context, Chromosome 12 for freezing to an altered context, and Chromosome 1 for freezing to the auditory stimulus. Overlapping QTLs may indicate some common genes that underlie aspects of this learning task.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Boulder, 80309-0447, USA.
authors.forename: E H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Owen
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Paylor
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Wehner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001143:Arousal / Q000235:genetics*; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005819:Genetic Markers / Q000235:genetics*; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D008957:Models, Genetic; D011995:Recombination, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers