Selective breeding as a tool to probe skeletal response to high voluntary locomotor activity in mice.

ABSTRACT: We present a novel mouse-model for the study of skeletal structure and evolution, based on selective breeding for high levels of voluntary wheel running. Whereas traditional models (originally inbred strains, more recently knockouts and transgenics) rely on the study of mutant or laboratory-manipulated phenotypes, we have studied changes in skeletal morphometrics resulting from many generations of artificial selection for high activity in the form of wheel running, in which mice engage voluntarily. Mice from the four replicate High Runner (HR) lines run nearly three times as many revolutions during days 5 and 6 of a 6-day exposure to wheels (1.12 m circumference). We have found significant changes in skeletal dimensions of the hind limbs, including decreased directional asymmetry, larger f

SUBMITTER: Middleton KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6515713 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature