Genetic influences on ultrasonic vocalizations in young mice

Ultrasonic calls produced by young mice elicit maternal investigation and retrieval, and their characteristics have been shown to vary with age and genotype. In this study, we completed a full Mendelian cross of two inbred strains BALB/cJ and DBA/2J. The major result was the detection of directional dominance for a high rate of calling. Other characteristics were influenced by additive and maternal effects in the absence of directional dominance. We estimate the number of loci involved in the rate of calling to be about 1—facilitating studies of a gene-to-behavior pathway.