APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF THE GENETICS OF BEHAVIOURAL VARIATION USING MICE AND RATS

Abstract

Many aspects of human and animal behaviours have a strong genetic contribution. Twin studies have demonstrated that half of the variance in our behaviours can be attributed to genetic factors. Individual variation in different behaviours is also found across animal populations. Animal models are increasingly being used to look for genes underlying these naturally occurring variations in behaviours and the most common species of animals used experimentally are mice and rats. Currently there are a number of different genetic approaches being employed to identify these genes including conventional breeding crosses, analysis of heterogeneous stock populations, mutagenesis and the use of congenic..