Naked mole-rats: behavioural phenotyping and comparison with C57BL/6 mice
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Date
2012Author
Deacon, R.M.J.
Dulub, T.D.
Patel, N.B.
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
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Naked mole-rats (NMR) live underground in large eusocial colonies in East Africa. They are extremely
long-lived, some individuals having a lifespan of over 30 years. This has attracted research into longevity
and possibly neurodegenerative disorders. However, very little is known about their basic behaviour,
particularly in tests commonly used to characterise the behaviour of the laboratory rat and mouse, for
which there is an enormous database. Recently the authors carried out comprehensive behavioural phenotyping
on NMRs, comparing them on most tasks directly with C57BL/6 mice, the strain for which there
is the largest behavioural database.
The NMR colony had been obtained from the wild originally, but housed in an animal facility for about
two years. Large inter-species differences in behaviour were seen between the mice and the NMRs. The
latter had generally poor sensorimotor function, including cutaneous sensation, strength and even grasp
reflexes. They were often reluctant to enter or head-dip into small holes that mice readily entered. Their
vision (generally considered to be very poor) was sufficient to distinguish the two zones of a light–dark
box. Although, as expected, the NMRs were capable of burrowing and digging, when individually housed
they did not shred cotton material to make nests. Shredding was seen in a colony cage containing a queen,
but no nests were made there even when a nesting box was provided. In cognitive testing, although,
unlike mice and rats, they did not spontaneously alternate in a T-maze, they learnt rewarded alternation
and a cued position task well. This study demonstrates how behaviour uniquely reflects the natural
environment in which these unusual animals have evolved and live, and provides baseline data for future
work.
Citation
Behavioural Brain ResearchCollections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10378]