While the study of anxiety in mice using QTLs is both ground-breaking and remarkable, the reality is that the ultimate goal is to understand the genetic basis of such traits in humans. Similar techniques have been used to narrow down the QTLs and have led to some very interesting discoveries.
Five loci have been identified that affect anxiety related traits, however some of these acted only in males or females. This indicates that gender must be taken into account when considering such traits.
Some of the loci discovered in humans seem to relate specifically to fairly narrowly defined disorders such as panic disorders and phobias. Other sites however were linked to panic disorder and neuroticism but not to agoraphobia or simple phobias, traits which would appear to be related.
One of the five loci in mouse that was linked to anxiety was mapped to a region homologous to the loci 14p in humans which has been linked predominately to phobias. This suggests that the information from mouse QTL studies could be used to discover loci in humans and further our knowledge of disorders such as anxiety and phobias.
Eleanor McDonald
40855130
References
Mackay, Trudy. (2004) Complementing complexity, Nature Genetics, Vol 36, Number 11, 1145-7
Villafuerte, S and Burmeister, (2003) M. Untangling genetic networks of panic, phobia, fear and anxiety. Genome Biology, Vol 4, Issue 8, Article 224
