Approaching and Avoiding (A/A) behaviors represent the primary reactions to positive and negative stimuli, respectively. Individual differences in A/A behaviors emerge especially in the presence of conflicting stimuli characterized by simultaneously attractive and aversive features. The A/A behaviors are normally distributed within the population so that medium response to conflicting stimuli (that characterizes the Balancing, BA, individuals) and extreme responses (that characterize the outliers individuals with reactions representing ± 2 standard deviations from the mean, namely, Avoiding, AV, or Approaching, AP, individuals) can be individuated and allow to selected three phenotypes (AV, BA, AP). The aim of the present project is to investigate whether a given paternal phenotype could be transmitted across generations and modulate parental care and offspring behaviors. To this aim, by using the A/A Y-Maze, AV, BA and AP male inbred C57Bl6 mice were selected and then subjected to the Open Field test (OF) with novel object to investigate explorative behaviors, and to the Elevated Plus Maze (EPM) to assess anxiety levels. AV, BA and AP male mice were then mated with BA females. Each couple obtained (BA♂-BA♀; AV♂-BA♀; AP♂- BA♀) was kept in exclusive relationship in standard cages from mating to offspring weaning. A 30-min undisturbed Parental Care Observation (PCO) was performed at post natal day (pnd) 3 to assess parental behaviors. Male offspring was subjected to the A/A Y-Maze (pnd 35-38), and to OF and EPM (pnd 55-60). Results show that in the A/A Y-Maze, the male offspring born to AP father exhibits significantly higher approaching behaviors and higher mean velocity and total distances travelled in the OF arena in comparison to the offspring born to BA and AV fathers. Interestingly no differences are found in time spent contacting the novel object. All male mice spend significantly more times in the closed arms compared to the open arms of EPM. Preliminary results on PCO analysis indicate that AP fathers contact their pups longer than BA and AV fathers. These results indicate that paternal phenotype thus influences offspring’s behaviors. In fact, offspring performances in the A/A Y-Maze and OF closely fit the paternal approach or avoidance behaviors. Neurochemical and epigenetic analyses will carry out to reveal the brain correlates of the A/A transgenerational transmission.
Father and sons: individual differences in Approaching and Avoiding behaviors influence male offspring phenotype
Berretta E;
2017-01-01
Abstract
Approaching and Avoiding (A/A) behaviors represent the primary reactions to positive and negative stimuli, respectively. Individual differences in A/A behaviors emerge especially in the presence of conflicting stimuli characterized by simultaneously attractive and aversive features. The A/A behaviors are normally distributed within the population so that medium response to conflicting stimuli (that characterizes the Balancing, BA, individuals) and extreme responses (that characterize the outliers individuals with reactions representing ± 2 standard deviations from the mean, namely, Avoiding, AV, or Approaching, AP, individuals) can be individuated and allow to selected three phenotypes (AV, BA, AP). The aim of the present project is to investigate whether a given paternal phenotype could be transmitted across generations and modulate parental care and offspring behaviors. To this aim, by using the A/A Y-Maze, AV, BA and AP male inbred C57Bl6 mice were selected and then subjected to the Open Field test (OF) with novel object to investigate explorative behaviors, and to the Elevated Plus Maze (EPM) to assess anxiety levels. AV, BA and AP male mice were then mated with BA females. Each couple obtained (BA♂-BA♀; AV♂-BA♀; AP♂- BA♀) was kept in exclusive relationship in standard cages from mating to offspring weaning. A 30-min undisturbed Parental Care Observation (PCO) was performed at post natal day (pnd) 3 to assess parental behaviors. Male offspring was subjected to the A/A Y-Maze (pnd 35-38), and to OF and EPM (pnd 55-60). Results show that in the A/A Y-Maze, the male offspring born to AP father exhibits significantly higher approaching behaviors and higher mean velocity and total distances travelled in the OF arena in comparison to the offspring born to BA and AV fathers. Interestingly no differences are found in time spent contacting the novel object. All male mice spend significantly more times in the closed arms compared to the open arms of EPM. Preliminary results on PCO analysis indicate that AP fathers contact their pups longer than BA and AV fathers. These results indicate that paternal phenotype thus influences offspring’s behaviors. In fact, offspring performances in the A/A Y-Maze and OF closely fit the paternal approach or avoidance behaviors. Neurochemical and epigenetic analyses will carry out to reveal the brain correlates of the A/A transgenerational transmission.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
