- Frozen Embryo and Sperm Archive
- Mouse Husbandry Services
- Transgenics
- Mutagenesis
- Phenotyping
- Bioimaging
- Clinical Pathology
- ENU DNA archive
- Genotyping and Mutation Detection Screens
- Molecular Phenotyping Core
Social dominance test (tube test)
The social dominance tube test measures aggressive tendencies without allowing mice to injure one another. Dominant and submissive behaviours are scored for two mice during a brief pairing in a specialised chamber. The social dominance tube test employs two start areas, a two-section tube and one neutral area inside the two-section tube. The apparatus is 30 cm long x 3.5 cm diameter, built with clear Plexiglas material. Each individual tube section is 13 cm long and gates at the end of each section allow olfactory but not physical contact.
The test starts with two mice of the same gender placed at opposite ends of the tube. Both mice begin to explore in a forward direction. At this stage the gates in the proximity of the neutral area located in the middle of the tube are removed, allowing the two mice to approach each other. For each trial we identified a dominant (winner) and a subordinate (loser) mouse. The dominant generally forces the subordinate out of the neutral area. In some cases neither mouse was dominant or subordinate, and both mice were considered equivalent. Furthermore, for each mouse, we assessed the conflicting behaviour of approaching or retreating in the tube test using the classical Hawk-Dove game model within the ‘game theory’ approach.
