Behavioral Genetics and Mice Burrow Construction

NY Times & Nature, Journal of Science. Scientists  at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Texas at Austin were trying  to understand how our genetic material can influence complex behavior displayed by both ourselves and animals. An 80 year study on deer mice , or Peromyscus polionotus, helped isolate four sections of DNA that influence mouse behavior and the structure of their burrows. Although they identified the genes, further studies are required to shed lights on what pushes them to dig further or halt excavation. In known genetic anomalies, we find that switching genetic sequences ever so slightly results in a big difference. This may also be the case in mouse behavior or even our own. Even after numerous generations of breeding in captivity deer mice will burrow deep into the ground, adding an escape tunnel. Tunnel length and engineering features were treated as qualitative properties , using foam to create a mold, and was measured as such.

The Howard Hughes team bred deer mice and old field mice, a smaller , closely related breed, and measured their descendents tunnels. Their tunnels were found to be longer than the parental generation. Then the hybrids and original short-burrow species were bred and tunnels were measured once more. This showed a cross over of characteristics, with no correlation. The team then paired the differences in tunnel features with that of their DNA. In addition to the three parts of DNA dealing with tunnel length, another was found to influence whether or not there was an escape tunnel. However, elaborate behaviors dealing with tunnel length are only thirty percent inherited with half of the DNA accounting for distinct shape. When dealing with the "escape tunnel" DNA section, when short-burrow mice contained a long-burrow DNA sequence, there was a forty percent chance that there would be an escape tunnel. Being that these are sections of DNA, their next step will be to find the specific gene and then the specific pathwa