Identification of sex specific quantitative trait loci controlling alcohol preference in C57BL/6 mice

Mice from various inbred strains consume alcoholic beverages at highly reproducible and strain-specific levels. While most mice consume alcohol in moderate amounts, C57BL/6J animals exhibit sustained oral ingestion of high levels of alcohol in the presence of competing water and food. We now report a genetic investigation of this phenotype as one potential model for alcoholism. An intercross-backcross breeding protocol was used to identify two recessive alcohol preference quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that are both sex-restricted in expression. A comparison of our results with those of an earlier morphine preference study argues against the hypothesis of a single unified phenotype defined by a preference for all euphoria-producing drugs.