Risk, resilience, and gene-environment interplay in primates.

OBJECTIVES

The primary objectives of the body of research reported here was to demonstrate significant interactions between genetic and social environmental factors that clearly influenced both the biological and behavioral responses of rhesus monkeys to social stressors such as separation from familial and/or familiar conspecifics throughout development and to investigate possible mechanisms underlying such interactions.

METHODS

Prospective longitudinal studies of rhesus monkeys reared in both captive and naturalistic settings have examined individual differences in biological and behavioral responses to stress throughout the lifespan.

RESULTS

Approximately 20% of monkeys in both settings consistently display unusually fearful and anxious-like behavioral reactions to novel, mildly stressful social situations and depressive-like symptoms following repeated separations from familial and/or familiar conspecifics during their infant and juvenile years, as well as profound and prolonged activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in both situations. Both genetic and experiential factors - as well as their interaction -- are implicated in these reactions to social stress. For example, a specific polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene is associated with deficits in neonatal neurobehavioral functioning and in extreme behavioral and adreno-cortical responses to social separation among infant and juvenile monkeys who experienced insecure early attachments but not in monkeys who developed secure attachment relationships with their mothers during infancy (maternal "buffering"). Similar instances of maternal "buffering" have been demonstrated in significant gene-environment interplay involving several other "candidate" gene polymorphisms. Moreover, because the attachment style of a monkey mother is typically "copied" by her daughters when they become mothers themselves, similar "buffering" is likely to occur for the next generation of infants carrying so-called "risk" alleles.

CONCLUSIONS

Specific gene-environment interactions can influence behavioral and biological reactions to social stress not only throughout development but also across successive generations of rhesus monkey families.