NEUROGENETICS OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. The goal of this project is to use two different approaches to generate prairie voles with disrupted vasopressin receptor signaling. The first approach involves creating transgenic prairie vole expressing shRNA's targeting the vasopressin receptor gene. During this reporting period, we have screened several potential shRNA's in vitro and have identified the optimal sequences. We have also put these shRNA sequences into a lentiviral vector and shown that they decrease vasopressin receptor binding in the brain. We are now ready to inject these viruses into embryos. The second approach is to create Zinc Finger Nuclease proteins that target the vasopressin receptor sequence to cause deletions. Working with the company that produces these nucleases, we have identified several candidates and will begin screening these in an invitro system before we inject into vole embryos.