Audiogenic seizure susceptibility of C57BL/6 in equilibrium DBA/2 allophenic mice

Allophenic mice composed of cells from a strain (DBA/2) susceptible to sound-induced seizures and cells from a strain (C57BL/6) resistant to them were produced by embryo aggregation techniques. Twenty-eight allophenic mice were tested for audiogenic seizure susceptibility. The results were compared with the genotypic composition of the coat melanocytes. For those animals with a predominance of one genotype or the other in the coat, their seizure phenotype was the same as that of the strain most represented in the coat. In contrast, those animals with major contributions of both genotypes in the coat demonstrated the entire spectrum of susceptibility phenotypes. Such results are likely to be a manifestation of a relatively small target tissue for the genes influencing the development of audiogenic seizure susceptibility.