SELF-ADMINISTRATION OF ETHANOL - TOWARDS THE LOCATION OF PREDISPOSINGPOLYGENES IN QUASI-CONGENIC ANIMAL-MODELS

Alcohol consumption by C57BL/6By background and BALB/cJ donor strains, and by two recently developed quasi-congenic QTL-introgression strain s, which share about 96% of their genes with the background strain, wa s studied in a limited access paradigm. Alcohol and water were offered for 60 min per day using modified pipettes on a drinking cage. Increa sing concentrations of alcohol solutions, 3, 6, and 12%, were given fo r days 1-7, 8-14, and 15-22, respectively. Consumption of the 12% alco hol solution was highest in C57BL/6By (0.72 g/kg/h), lowest in BALB/cJ (0.14 g/kg/h). The B6.Cb(4)i(5) beta 13 quasi-congenic strain, in spi te of its genetic similarity to the C57BL/6By background strain, consu med significantly less alcohol (0.41 g/kg/h) than the background strai n. The results suggest that polygenes that reduce alcohol consumption were introgressed from the BALB/cJ donor strain into the C57BL/6By bac kground strain, and that the b(4)i(5) series of the B6.C quasi-congeni c QTL-introgression strains may be useful in mapping genes that influe nce alcohol-related behaviors. Locations of the introgressed candidate polygenes were tentatively identified by analyzing microsatellite map s of two of the quasi-congenic strains. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Sc ience Inc.