The role of interindividual licking received and dopamine genotype on later-life licking provisioning in female rat offspring.
Brain Behav
; 11(4): e02069, 2021 04.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33560574
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Rat mothers exhibit natural variations in care that propagate between generations of female offspring. However, there is limited information on genetic variation that could influence this propagation.METHODS:
We assessed early-life maternal care received by individual female rat offspring, later-life maternal care provisioning, and dopaminergic activity in the maternal brain in relation to naturally occurring genetic polymorphisms linked to the dopaminergic system. We also conducted a systematic analysis of other genetic variants potentially related to maternal behavior in our Long-Evans rat population.RESULTS:
While we did not find a direct relationship between early-life licking received and later-life licking provisioning, this relationship was indirectly affected by dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens and dependent on variation in the dopamine receptor 2 gene (rs107017253). More specifically, female rat offspring with the A/G genotype showed a positive relationship between average licking received and dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens of the maternal brain; there was no relationship with female rat offspring with the A/A genotype. The higher dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens corresponded with higher maternal licking provisioning from postnatal days 2-9. We also discovered and validated several new variants that were predicted by our systematic analysis.CONCLUSION:
Our findings suggest that genetic variation influences the relationship between early-life maternal care received and the dopaminergic system of the maternal brain, which can indirectly influence later-life maternal care provisioning.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Behavior, Animal
/
Dopamine
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Animals
/
Female
/
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Brain Behav
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Canada