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Born to Cry: A Genetic Dissection of Infant Vocalization

Infant vocalizations are one of the most fundamental and innate forms of behavior throughout avian and mammalian orders. They have a critical role in motivating parental care and contribute significantly to fitness and reproductive success. Dysregulation of these vocalizations has been reported to p...

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Autores principales: Ashbrook, David George, Roy, Snigdha, Clifford, Brittany G., Riede, Tobias, Scattoni, Maria Luisa, Heck, Detlef H., Lu, Lu, Williams, Robert W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6216097/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30420800
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00250
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author Ashbrook, David George
Roy, Snigdha
Clifford, Brittany G.
Riede, Tobias
Scattoni, Maria Luisa
Heck, Detlef H.
Lu, Lu
Williams, Robert W.
author_facet Ashbrook, David George
Roy, Snigdha
Clifford, Brittany G.
Riede, Tobias
Scattoni, Maria Luisa
Heck, Detlef H.
Lu, Lu
Williams, Robert W.
author_sort Ashbrook, David George
collection PubMed
description Infant vocalizations are one of the most fundamental and innate forms of behavior throughout avian and mammalian orders. They have a critical role in motivating parental care and contribute significantly to fitness and reproductive success. Dysregulation of these vocalizations has been reported to predict risk of central nervous system pathologies such as hypoxia, meningitis, or autism spectrum disorder. Here, we have used the expanded BXD family of mice, and a diallel cross between DBA/2J and C57BL/6J parental strains, to begin the process of genetically dissecting the numerous facets of infant vocalizations. We calculate heritability, estimate the role of parent-of-origin effects, and identify novel quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that control ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) on postnatal days 7, 8, and 9; a stage that closely matches human infants at birth. Heritability estimates for the number and frequency of calls are low, suggesting that these traits are under high selective pressure. In contrast, duration and amplitude of calls have higher heritabilities, indicating lower selection, or their importance for kin recognition. We find suggestive evidence that amplitude of infant calls is dependent on the maternal genotype, independent of shared genetic variants. Finally, we identify two loci on Chrs 2 and 14 influencing call frequency, and a third locus on Chr 8 influencing the amplitude of vocalizations. All three loci contain strong candidate genes that merit further analysis. Understanding the genetic control of infant vocalizations is not just important for understanding the evolution of parent–offspring interactions, but also in understanding the earliest innate behaviors, the development of parent–offspring relations, and the early identification of behavioral abnormalities.
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spelling pubmed-62160972018-11-12 Born to Cry: A Genetic Dissection of Infant Vocalization Ashbrook, David George Roy, Snigdha Clifford, Brittany G. Riede, Tobias Scattoni, Maria Luisa Heck, Detlef H. Lu, Lu Williams, Robert W. Front Behav Neurosci Neuroscience Infant vocalizations are one of the most fundamental and innate forms of behavior throughout avian and mammalian orders. They have a critical role in motivating parental care and contribute significantly to fitness and reproductive success. Dysregulation of these vocalizations has been reported to predict risk of central nervous system pathologies such as hypoxia, meningitis, or autism spectrum disorder. Here, we have used the expanded BXD family of mice, and a diallel cross between DBA/2J and C57BL/6J parental strains, to begin the process of genetically dissecting the numerous facets of infant vocalizations. We calculate heritability, estimate the role of parent-of-origin effects, and identify novel quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that control ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) on postnatal days 7, 8, and 9; a stage that closely matches human infants at birth. Heritability estimates for the number and frequency of calls are low, suggesting that these traits are under high selective pressure. In contrast, duration and amplitude of calls have higher heritabilities, indicating lower selection, or their importance for kin recognition. We find suggestive evidence that amplitude of infant calls is dependent on the maternal genotype, independent of shared genetic variants. Finally, we identify two loci on Chrs 2 and 14 influencing call frequency, and a third locus on Chr 8 influencing the amplitude of vocalizations. All three loci contain strong candidate genes that merit further analysis. Understanding the genetic control of infant vocalizations is not just important for understanding the evolution of parent–offspring interactions, but also in understanding the earliest innate behaviors, the development of parent–offspring relations, and the early identification of behavioral abnormalities. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-10-29 /pmc/articles/PMC6216097/ /pubmed/30420800 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00250 Text en Copyright © 2018 Ashbrook, Roy, Clifford, Riede, Scattoni, Heck, Lu and Williams. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Ashbrook, David George
Roy, Snigdha
Clifford, Brittany G.
Riede, Tobias
Scattoni, Maria Luisa
Heck, Detlef H.
Lu, Lu
Williams, Robert W.
Born to Cry: A Genetic Dissection of Infant Vocalization
title Born to Cry: A Genetic Dissection of Infant Vocalization
title_full Born to Cry: A Genetic Dissection of Infant Vocalization
title_fullStr Born to Cry: A Genetic Dissection of Infant Vocalization
title_full_unstemmed Born to Cry: A Genetic Dissection of Infant Vocalization
title_short Born to Cry: A Genetic Dissection of Infant Vocalization
title_sort born to cry: a genetic dissection of infant vocalization
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6216097/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30420800
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00250
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