Existing assays of social interaction are suboptimal, and none measures propinquity, the tendency of rodents to maintain close physical proximity. These assays are ubiquitously performed using inbred mouse strains and mutations placed on inbred genetic backgrounds. We developed the automatable tube cooccupancy test (TCOT) based on propinquity, the tendency of freely mobile rodents to maintain close physical proximity, and assessed TCOT behavior on a variety of genotypes and social and environmental conditions. In outbred mice and rats, familiarity determined willingness to cooccupy the tube, with siblings and/or cagemates of both sexes exhibiting higher cooccupancy behavior than strangers. Subsequent testing using multiple genotypes revealed that inbred strain siblings do not cooccupy at higher rates than strangers, in marked contrast to both outbred and rederived wild mice. Mutant mouse strains with “autistic-like” phenotypes (Fmr1−/y and Eif4e Ser209Ala) displayed significantly decreased cooccupancy.
展开▼
机译:现有的社交互动分析方法不是最理想的,也没有一种方法能测量邻近性,即啮齿动物保持紧密的身体接近性的趋势。这些测定是使用近交小鼠品系和近交遗传背景上的突变普遍进行的。我们根据邻近性,自由移动的啮齿动物保持紧密的身体接近性的趋势,开发了自动管同居试验(TCOT),并评估了TCOT在各种基因型以及社会和环境条件下的行为。在近交的小鼠和大鼠中,熟悉程度决定了对管的共管意愿,同胞的同胞和/或同伴表现出比陌生人更高的共管行为。随后使用多种基因型进行的测试表明,自交系同胞兄弟姐妹的同居率不比陌生人高,与近交和再饲养的野生小鼠形成鲜明对比。具有“自闭症式”表型的突变小鼠品系(Fmr1 -/ y sup>和Eif4e Ser209Ala)显示共同占用率显着降低。
展开▼