Correlated response in selection for aggressiveness in female mice. I. Male aggressiveness.

Males from the fifty selected generation of a selection program for aggressiveness in female Mus musculus (Ebert and Hyde, 1976) were tested to determine whether male aggressiveness showed a correlated response in selection for female aggressiveness. The results indicated that male aggression had not shown a correlated response. Differences among males from the high, control, and low lines were not statistically significant in one replication and were significant but not in the predicted order in the other replication. There were marginally significant line X sex interactions. The rank correlation between male and female aggression scores was 0.20, which was not significant. The results suggest that male aggressiveness and female aggressiveness are under separate genetic control. Data for generation S5 females are also reported; differences among the high, control, and low lines continue to be significant.