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We have recently identified, using two inbred rat strains (Lewis and SHR), the first two loci for an emotionality-related behavior in rats (locomotion in the central area of the open field test). Aiming to develop an alternative genetic model that will help to corroborate the existence of these loci and that could serve as a tool in the study of anxiety, we have started breeding two new rat lines. From a highly heterogeneous population, we have selectively bred rats for four generations with high and low scores for central locomotion in the open field. At the fourth generation, the new outbred lines differed from each other for the selected trait by as much as threefold. At each generation, all rats were also tested in the elevated plus maze and the black and white box, with the two lines differing significantly also in these two models of anxiety. These results suggest that behavioral measures from different tests of emotionality/anxiety are, at least in part, genetically related. They also indicate that this newly developed genetic model (herein named Floripa H and L rat lines) may be useful in the study of anxiety, as well as serving as a tool to test the existence/significance of the two aforementioned loci putatively associated with emotionality. |
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