GENETICS OF ANXIOUS/DEPRESSIVE BEHAVIOR IN MACAQUES

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. In this study, a collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh and the Southwest Foundation, we are examining the genetic underpinnings of behaviors in rhesus monkeys that parallel behavioral and temperamental traits linked to anxiety disorders in humans. This study is identifying temperamental characteristics in infant rhesus monkeys using a set of 8 tests of anxious behavior which have been adapted from clinical tests used with young children. Physiological attributes associated with anxiety and depression, specifically blunted growth hormone responsiveness to pharmacological stimulation, activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and cerebral spinal fluid neurotransmitter levels are also being measured. Each monkey study has a genome-wide scan using 350 microsatellite markers and then linkage analyses are run to identify chromosomal regions associated with specific aspects of anxious behavior. At ONPRC the monkeys are being behaviorally phenotyped and physiological measures are made. At the Southwest Foundation all of the DNA is being analyzed, and linkage analyses are being performed at the University of Pittsburgh.