Targeted knockout of a chemokine-like gene increases anxiety and fear responses

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1707663115
• Publication Date: 2018-01-16T16:45:27Z
• Authors: Jung-Hwa Choi; Yun-Mi Jeong; Sujin Kim; Boyoung Lee; Krishan Ariyasiri; Hyun-Taek Kim; Seung-Hyun Jung; Kyu-Seok Hwang; Tae-Ik Choi; Chul O Park; Won-Ki Huh; Matthias Carl; Jill A. Rosenfeld; Salmo Raskin; Alan Ma; Jozef Gecz; Hyung-Goo Kim; Jin-Soo Kim; Ho-Chul Shin; Doo-Sang Park; Robert Gerlai; Bradley B. Jamieson; Joon S. Kim; Karl J. Iremonger; Sang H. Lee; Hee-Sup Shin; Cheol-Hee Kim
• Keywords: Knockout mouse

Significance Emotion-related responses, such as fear and anxiety, are important behavioral phenomena in most animal species, well humans. However, the underlying mechanisms of anxiety animals humans still largely unknown, disorders continue to represent a large unmet medical need human clinic. Animal models may speed up discovery these also lead betterment health. Herein, we report identification chemokine-like gene family, samdori ( sam ), present functional characterization sam2 . We observed increased anxiety-related responses both zebrafish mouse knockout models. Taken together, results support crucial evolutionarily conserved role regulating anxiety-like behavior.