Gene-environment interactions and response to social intrusion in male and female rhesus macaques.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Genetic factors interact with environmental stressors to moderate risk for human psychopathology, but sex may also be an important mediating factor. Different strategies for coping with environmental stressors have evolved in males and females, and these differences may underlie the differential prevalence of certain types of psychopathology in the two sexes. In this study, we investigated the possibility of sex-specific gene-environment interactions in a nonhuman primate model of response to social threat.

Methods

Rhesus macaques (77 males and 106 females) were exposed to an unfamiliar conspecific. Using factor analysis, we identified three behavioral factors characterizing the response to social threat. Monkeys were genotyped for the serotonin transporter-linked

SUBMITTER: Schwandt ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2885700 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature