July 2005

News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience

Making 'Fierce' Mice a Bit More Human.

Brett S. Abrahams, Melvin C.H. Kwok, Eric Trinh, Saeed Budaghzadeh, Sazzad M. Hossain, and Elizabeth M. Simpson

Only to the most skittish are mice considered fierce. However in the absence of nuclear receptor 2E1 (NR2E1), even laboratory mice can become fierce, displaying pathological violent behavior as well as hypoplastic brian and retinal development. Abrahams et al. tested whether the mouse and human (NR2E1) genes are equivalent.