Mice reared with rats: Effects of prenatal and postnatal maternal environments upon hybrid offspring of C57BL/10J and Swiss Albino mice

Abstract

The hybrid offspring of reciprocal crosses between C57BL/ 1OJ and Swiss Albino mice were fostered at birth to Swiss Albino mouse mothers or to Purdue-Wistar rat mothers.Measures were taken of incidence of survival, body weight, open-field performance, passive avoidance learning, and fighting. As compared to mice reared by mouse mothers after birth, mice reared by rat mothers (a) had a lower incidence of survival at weaning; (b) weighed more; (c) were less active in the open field, defecated less in the field, and had a greater latency to initiate movement in the field; and (d) had poorer passive learning scores. The findings indicate that the postnatal maternal environment has pervasive effects upon a number of behavioral and morphological characters, but reveal a minimal effect of the prenatal environment. Moreover, they indicate that the absence of differences in fighting scores among the 4 groups may be caused by dominant genes.Parental influences may be imposed upon offspring through a number of routes. A major pathway is the transmission of information via the gametes at the time of conception or by means of extranuclear (cytoplasmic) inheritance.

How do hypothalamic nonapeptides shape youth’s sociality? A systematic review on oxytocin, vasopressin and human socio-emotional development

“…Social competence in adulthood stems from social learning during development (13,14). Indeed, sociality is a highly dynamic dimension of human behaviour, characterized by intense changes during psycho-emotional ontogenesis (15): e.g.…”