PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Alonso, Alejandra
AU  - Samanta, Anumita
AU  - van der Meij, Jacqueline
AU  - van den Brand, Liz
AU  - Negwer, Moritz
AU  - Lobato, Irene Navarro
AU  - Genzel, Lisa
TI  - Defensive and offensive behaviors in social interaction settings in a Kleefstra syndrome mouse model
AID  - 10.1101/2022.02.03.478985
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.02.03.478985
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/02/06/2022.02.03.478985.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/02/06/2022.02.03.478985.full
AB  - Kleefstra syndrome in humans is characterized by general delay in development, intellectual disability and autistic features. The mouse model of this disease (Ehmt1+/-) expresses anxiety, autistic-like traits, and aberrant social interactions with non-cagemates. To investigate how Ehmt1+/- mice behave with unfamiliar conspecifics, we allowed adult, male animals to freely interact for 10 minutes in a neutral, novel environment within a host-visitor setting. In 17 out of 74 trials there were defensive and offensive behaviors. Our key finding was that Ehmt1+/- mice displayed defensive postures, attacking and biting; in contrast, wild-type (WT) interacting with other WT did not enact such behaviors. Further, if there was a fight between an Ehmt1+/- and a WT mouse, it was always the Ehmt1+/- who initiated these behaviors.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.