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Science 5 November 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5442, pp. 1155 - 1158
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5442.1155
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Reports

Nongenomic Transmission Across Generations of Maternal Behavior and Stress Responses in the Rat

Darlene Francis, Josie Diorio, Dong Liu, Michael J. Meaney *

In the rat, variations in maternal care appear to influence the development of behavioral and endocrine responses to stress in the offspring. The results of cross-fostering studies reported here provide evidence for (i) a causal relationship between maternal behavior and stress reactivity in the offspring and (ii) the transmission of such individual differences in maternal behavior from one generation of females to the next. Moreover, an environmental manipulation imposed during early development that alters maternal behavior can then affect the pattern of transmission in subsequent generations. Taken together, these findings indicate that variations in maternal care can serve as the basis for a nongenomic behavioral transmission of individual differences in stress reactivity across generations.

Developmental Neuroendocrinology Laboratory, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Departments of Psychiatry and of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, H4H 1R3, Canada.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mdmm{at}musica.mcgill.ca

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