ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 27, 1996 TAG: 9607290046
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 NATL/INTL EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOSTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Below
Scientists have discovered a good-mother gene, an inborn trigger that prompts female mice to care for their young.
When this gene is missing, mice show no interest in their babies. Instead, they curl up in a corner and let the young ones die.
The discovery is part of an effort by scientists to learn the genetic factors that control complex behaviors in animals.
This particular gene, called fosB, is a kind of regulatory switch that turns on other genes in response to outside cues. In this case, the gene is probably activated by the sight and smell of baby mice.
Humans, too, have a fosB gene. But whether it plays any role in prompting women to nurture their babies is unknown.
``Whether this would be relevant to other mammals'' - including people - ``remains to be considered in the future,'' said Dr. Michael Greenberg. ``You can't say anything more about that.''
Indeed, while many believe that genes influence all sorts of human behavior, this is a sensitive point and difficult to sort out, because learning, experience and social conditions are also clearly important.
The study was conducted by Jennifer Brown, a doctoral student in Greenberg's lab at Children's Hospital in Boston. It was published in Friday's issue of the biweekly journal Cell.
The scientists began by creating a ``knockout'' mouse, an animal that was missing the fosB gene. The goal was to learn the gene's function by seeing how the animal acted without it.
The mutant mice seemed normal until they gave birth. Ordinarily, a female mouse put in a cage with her babies will crouch over them and keep them warm within a minute.
``The mutant will go and investigate them but fails to retrieve them, and eventually goes off in a corner and ignores them,'' Greenberg said.
Not fed or tended in any way, the babies die in a day or two.
The gene also controls nurturing in male mice (although this drive is less pronounced in males) and it may come into play in other kinds of behavior, as well.
FosB is one of a small family of genes, called immediate early genes, that Greenberg and colleagues have been studying for about a decade. Experts believe these genes trigger animals' responses to a variety of outside stimuli, including stress, changes in light levels and addictive drugs.
Dr. Eric Kandel of Columbia University said the work shows science's potential to understand the molecular underpinnings of behavior, something that could become a powerful tool for psychiatry.
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