We see at play, in principle but increasingly also in practice, an expansion of the concept of responsibility that reaches well beyond the individual and her direct offspring, fostering the materialization of new bonds among generations.
Surviving pups from Magel2-null dams were of normal size and weight at weaning, suggesting intact ability of Magel2-null female mice to lactate and foster offspring despite low rates of survival of the pups.
However, prions will readily attend and feed chicks in cross-fostering experiments, as in the present study, suggesting that parents do not distinguish between their own and foster offspring.
Nonetheless, NS-specific Txnrd1 knockout mice survived and could even generate and foster viable offspring.
In cross-fostering the offspring of Asic3+/+ and Asic3−/− dams, the total activity of juvenile social behaviors was reversed.
Male and female knockout mice were fertile, and females could also foster their offspring normally (data not shown).
We further tested the ASIC3-dependent effect in maternal care on social development by cross-fostering the offspring of Asic3+/+ and Asic3−/− dam at the day of birth.
Altered methylation was reversed by cross-fostering the offspring after birth or by infusion of a histone deacetylase inhibitor [ 9].
To increase survival of the KD dams and offspring, fostering of P2.5 pups (from both KD and SD litters) by SD-foster dams was carried out.
Peg3 deficient offspring fostered on wild-type mothers had reduced birth weight and also had inferior growth rates compared to wild-type offspring [ 41].
