Abstract
Oxytocin-like peptides have been implicated in the regulation of a wide range of social behaviors across taxa. On the other hand, the social environment, which is composed of conspecifics that may vary in their genotypes, also influences social behavior, creating the possibility for indirect genetic effects. Here, we used a zebrafish oxytocin receptor knockout line to investigate how the genotypic composition of the social environment (Gs) interacts with the oxytocin genotype of the focal individual (Gi) in the regulation of its social behavior. For this purpose, we have raised wild-type or knock-out zebrafish in either wild-type or knock-out shoals and tested different components of social behavior in adults. GixGs effects were detected in some behaviors, highlighting the need to control for GixGs effects when interpreting results of experiments using genetically modified animals, since the genotypic composition of the social environment can either rescue or promote phenotypes associated with specific genes.
Highlights
Social genetic effects occur when the phenotype of an organism is influenced by the genotypes of conspecifics
We aimed to provide a proof of principle for GixGs effects in behavioral phenotypes observed in genetically modified organisms (GMO) by assessing the occurrence of such effects in a knockout line for the OXT receptor in zebrafish, a commonly used model species in behavioral neuroscience (Orger and de Polavieja, 2017), which forms social groups and expresses a rich repertoire of social behavior (Zebrafish Neuroscience Research Consortium et al, 2013; Nunes et al, 2017)
When fish were presented for a second time to a shoal to measure social habituation, we found a GixGs interaction, where oxtr(-/-) individuals raised in oxtr(-/-) shoals express enhanced social habituation (F1,44 = 5.642, p=0.022; Figure 1D)
Summary
Social genetic effects (aka indirect genetic effects) occur when the phenotype of an organism is influenced by the genotypes of conspecifics. Previous work has highlighted the major potential evolutionary consequences of social genetic effects (Moore et al, 1997; Wolf et al, 1998), with evidence for such effects to be present both in interactions between related (e.g. mothers and offspring Champagne and Meaney, 2006; Wilson et al, 2004) and unrelated individuals (e.g. sexual displays (Petfield et al, 2005), aggression Wilson et al, 2011; Sartori and Mantovani, 2013; Santostefano et al, 2017). The potential consequences of social genetic effects for the interpretation of research results using genetically modified organisms (GMO) has been greatly neglected. GMOs have been widely used in behavioral neuroscience to investigate the causal role of candidate genes and behavioral phenotypes. The development of genome editing techniques, such as CRISPR-Cas9-and TALEN-induced mutations, have increased the interest in this approach and opened the door to studying the genetic basis of behavior in non-model organisms (Hsu et al, 2014)
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