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Maternal buffering of rodent genotypic responses to stress: A complex genotype-environment interaction

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Abstract

Three recent studies concerning the effects of prenatal stress on openfield exploration in rats and mice and the 11-hydroxy-corticosteroid response to stress in mice were re-analysed by biometrical methods. They indicate the importance of maternal effects in these behavioral and endocrine systems in that the maternal effects observed act in opposition to the additive genetic effects suggesting a buffering mechanism for moderating the expression of offspring genotype. A test of significance for the adequacy of the simple model, which allows for neither maternal-offspring interaction nor non-allelic interaction, is described.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Birmingham, England

    D. W. Fulker

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  1. D. W. Fulker
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Additional information

An earlier version of this paper was read to the British Genetical Society (Fulker, 1967). I would like to thank P. L. Broadhurst for his helpful comments and suggestions during the preparation of the manuscript.

An independent evaluation of the model described in this paper may be found in Joffe (1969).

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Fulker, D.W. Maternal buffering of rodent genotypic responses to stress: A complex genotype-environment interaction. Behav Genet 1, 119–124 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01071827

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01071827

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