Analysis of neural cell function in gene knockout mice: behavior.

A powerful tool to investigative gene function is the ability to create mice with targeted gene mutations. Analysis of the resulting phenotype is sometimes difficult, however, because individual genes have more than one function, and observed effects on complex behaviors are often a result of abnormalities of any of a number of individual processes. One way to address this issue is by examining mice in a battery of behavioral tests to assess the specificity of any observed differences among genotypes. This chapter describes a test battery used to examine metabolic and behavioral phenotypes in mice with mutations in specific glycan-binding proteins and glycosyltransferases genes. Because the potential consequences of these genetic deletions are varied, a large number of assays across a variety of domains was included in the battery. The power and usefulness of this approach is in discovering areas for more detailed investigation.