The present study investigated early somatic and neurobehavioral development in two inbred strains of mice: C57BL/6 and 129sv. Though these strains are most often used for behavioral studies in genetically modified mice and are known to differ in their behavior performance and learning in adulthood, much less is known about how these differences arise during development. In order to gain more insight into this question we used a battery of ontogenetic tests aimed to characterize maturation of behavior in these two inbred strains of mice. This battery covers development of a broad set of phenotypic traits from birth to weaning [1]. Application of this test battery to the analysis of comparative dynamics of behavioral development in the two strains demonstrated that C57BL/6 and 129sv mice are characterized by different speed of maturation of several important functional systems and learning abilities. Importantly, no general tendency can describe these differences since some of the functions mature earlier in C57BL/6 and some in 129sv mice. The results of factor analysis of the structure of behavior and application of classification methods to the behavioral phenotypes of both strains will be presented.

References

1. Zarayskaya, I.; Alexandrova, E.; Anokhin, K. (2000). A comparative approach to the early behavior development in mice. This volume.

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