Enhanced Activity of DNA Polymerase Iota in Mouse Brain Cells Is Associated with Aggressiveness

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L. V. Gening¹, A. A. Kamensky², N. G. Levitskaya², A. N. Petrochenkov¹, I. I. Poletaeva², and V. Z. Tarantul^1*

¹Institute of Molecular Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Kurchatova 2, 123182 Moscow, Russia; fax: (7-095) 196-0221; E-mail: tarantul@img.ras.ru

²Biological Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119899 Moscow, Russia; fax: (7-095) 939-2895; E-mail: kamensky@5.human.bio.msu.ru

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received August 5, 2004; Revision received September 16, 2004

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Recent studies performed with crude extracts of mouse tissues showed that the activity of DNA-polymerase iota (Pol psi) can be detected only in brain and testis extracts. To assess whether the activity of Pol psi is associated with animal behavior, we determined Pol psi activity in brain extracts of mice of two lines sharply differing in aggressiveness (RSB and RLB). We found that Pol psi activity in the mice with aggressive behavior was three times higher than in the less aggressive mice. The possible relationship between the activity of Pol psi and animal behavior is discussed.

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KEY WORDS: DNA-polymerase iota, aggressiveness, animal behavior, brain, genome stability

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