Genetic selection for voluntary alcohol consumption in the albino rat.

By outbreeding Wistar rats and selecting for breeding animals that differ in their alcohol consumption, we have raised two genetically different lines. Marked differences between the sexes and the strains were evident by the eighth generation. Selection is reflected in the regression coefficient .754, which accounts for 65.9 percent of the variance. The heritabilities differ significantly in the two sexes, h2 for the males being .263, and for the females .371; this difference seems mainly ascribable to sex-linkage of some of the genetic factors controlling voluntary consumption of alcohol.