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Abstract:
The adrenocortical function in two inbred strains of rats, Wistar (WAG) and August (AUG), and their F1, F2 and backcross hybrids was studied. The parental strains differed by the adrenal weight, plasma corticosterone level and in vitro adrenal secretion rate. Additive-dominant model of Mather and Jinks for the data analysis was applied. It was shown that genetic determination of the adrenocortical function was characterized by both intra- and inter-loci nonadditive and partly additive interactions. A genotype-environment interaction and a high environmental variance for some traits have been found. Under a stressful stimulation, the most significant additive genetic variance for plasma corticosterone level was revealed. This result completely coincides with our early conclusion about the role of the stress in manifestation of genetic variability. It may be concluded that the genotype integrity is a very important factor in determining the adrenocortical function of laboratory rats.