Ohno T, Ishikawa A, Yamagata T, Namikawa T, Tomita T
Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Nagoya University, Aichi, Japan.
Jikken Dobutsu. 1992 Apr;41(2):123-9. doi: 10.1538/expanim1978.41.2_123.
A behavioral mutant was found in the laboratory-bred musk shrew (Suncus murinus). The affected shrews were characterized by the behaviors of tight circling in both directions and frequent head shaking in horizontal. They could definitely be identified by at least day 10 after birth. These abnormal behaviors were steady and permanent through life. Mating experiments demonstrated that the mutant character is expressed by a single autosomal recessive gene in homozygote with complete penetrance. The pedigree analysis indicated that the gene was derived from one heterozygous male captured in Ginowan city, Okinawa. The name, waltzing, was proposed for this mutant character with the gene symbol wz. An abnormality of the balance organ was predicted for a cause of the abnormal behaviors, since, besides the circling and head shaking behaviors, the affected shrews could not keep the body stretching but twisted it frequently when they were held up by the tail and further they could not keep the head on the water surface at all. Nevertheless, the affected shrews were almost normal in gestation period, litter size, weaning ratio and body weight in comparison with the phenotypically normal ones. The mutant shrews have been maintained as a closed colony, the WZ line involved more than 30 individuals at every one generation.
在实验室饲养的臭鼩（Suncus murinus）中发现了一种行为突变体。受影响的臭鼩表现出双向紧密转圈以及频繁水平摇头的行为。它们在出生后至少第10天就可以被明确识别出来。这些异常行为在整个生命过程中都稳定且持续存在。交配实验表明，该突变性状由一个常染色体隐性基因在纯合子中完全外显地表达。系谱分析表明，该基因源自一只在冲绳县宜野湾市捕获的杂合子雄性。为此突变性状提出了“华尔兹”这个名称，基因符号为wz。由于除了转圈和摇头行为外，受影响的臭鼩被尾巴提起时无法保持身体伸展，而是频繁扭动身体，并且完全无法将头部保持在水面上，因此推测平衡器官异常是异常行为的一个原因。然而，与表型正常的臭鼩相比，受影响的臭鼩在妊娠期、产仔数、断奶率和体重方面几乎正常。突变臭鼩作为一个封闭群体得以维持，WZ系每一代涉及30多个个体。
