Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal.
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Elife. 2020 Sep 9;9:e56973. doi: 10.7554/eLife.56973.
Oxytocin-like peptides have been implicated in the regulation of a wide range of social behaviors across taxa. On the other hand, the social environment, which is composed of conspecifics that may vary in their genotypes, also influences social behavior, creating the possibility for indirect genetic effects. Here, we used a zebrafish oxytocin receptor knockout line to investigate how the genotypic composition of the social environment (G) interacts with the oxytocin genotype of the focal individual (G) in the regulation of its social behavior. For this purpose, we have raised wild-type or knock-out zebrafish in either wild-type or knock-out shoals and tested different components of social behavior in adults. GxG effects were detected in some behaviors, highlighting the need to control for GxG effects when interpreting results of experiments using genetically modified animals, since the genotypic composition of the social environment can either rescue or promote phenotypes associated with specific genes.
类催产素肽参与了跨生物类群的广泛社会行为的调节。另一方面，由基因型可能不同的同种个体组成的社会环境也会影响社会行为，从而产生间接遗传效应。在这里，我们使用了一种斑马鱼催产素受体敲除系，来研究社会环境的基因型组成（G）如何与焦点个体的催产素基因型（G）相互作用，从而调节其社会行为。为此，我们在野生型或敲除群体中饲养野生型或敲除的斑马鱼，并在成年鱼中测试了不同的社会行为成分。在一些行为中检测到了 GxG 效应，这强调了在解释使用基因修饰动物进行的实验结果时需要控制 GxG 效应，因为社会环境的基因型组成可以挽救或促进与特定基因相关的表型。
