Comparisons of subcolonies of selectively bred long-sleep and short-sleep mice

The Albany subcolony of the selectively bred Long- and Short-Sleep mice was directly compared to the original Colorado colony. As expected from the additional selection applied to the Colorado colony, small differences in the selection phenotype, loss of the righting reflex duration following ethanol treatment, were observed in the Short-Sleep line. However, no colony differences existed in three other indices of ethanol effects. Clear line differences in the shape of the locomotor activity dose-response curve, thermoregulatory effects of ethanol, and ethanol elimination rate replicated earlier findings, but these differences were similar in the two colonies. These data argue for stability of the polygenic control system and provide a picture of remarkable similarity of the two sublines, which were separated by more than 30 generations.