Genetic effects and sexual dimorphism in tyrosine hydroxylase activity in two mouse strains and their reciprocal F1 hybrids.

This study further analyzed the environmental and genetic mechanisms underlying the previously reported strain differences in tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) activity in the nigrostriatal and hypothalamic dopamine system of the BALB/cJ (B) and CBA/J (C) inbred mouse strains and related behavioral processes using parental and reciprocal F1 hybrid generations. Significant strain differences were found in both sexes in all the measured characters. Comparing males and females, sexual dimorphisms were found in TH activity of substantia nigra (SN), corpus striatum (CS) and hypothalamus (H), and in exploratory behavior (IE). Presence of sexual dimorphism was genotype dependent, with the exception of TH activity in H. Major components of strain differences, maternal effects and additive gene effects, were separated by biometrical genetic methods. The analysis indicated that significant maternal effects were present in TH activity of TH and CS with a trend towards this phenomenon in the SN. Additive gene effects were significant in all characters and various degrees of dominance were expressed in the hybrids in TH activity of SN and CS, as well as in behavioral traits, IE and spontaneous locomotion (SL). All the biochemical and behavioral parameters were expressed at lower levels in CBA/J than in BALB/cJ mice and reciprocal F1 hybrids took intermediate positions between the two parental strains for all phenotypes examined, with the exception of IE, where complete dominance was found in (CXB)F1 females. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that some of the genes affecting TH activity in brain dopamine systems contribute to the expression of dopamine mediated behaviors. Our analysis also indicates the possibility that the maternal effects on TH activity in CS and SN are the consequences of X-chromosome linked gene effects. We suggest that the influence of the X-chromosome linked gene(s) is dependent upon the action of gonadal steroids during the critical period of ontogenesis, and X-chromosome linked gene(s) play a major role in the genotype dependent expression of sexual dimorphism in TH activity.