One of the daunting features of undertaking a selective breeding project is the need to convince the relevant research community that the resultant selected lines will be useful. These studies were conducted as a part of the Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism (INIA-West), a consortium effort supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Because one goal is to provide tools to the research community (http://www.scripps.edu/cnad/inia/), and because the idea of creating these lines emerged consensually, there is broad interest in studying HDID-1 mice among other laboratories. For example, the phenotype (DID) has been used in INIA-West and other laboratories to analyze the pharmacology of high DID (33–36). We anticipate the use of HDID-1 mice in studies exploring the neurocircuitry, neurophysiology, and neurochemistry underlying the drinking response, as well as in further behavioral analyses (e.g., will future generations of HDID-1 mice drink sufficient ethanol to display withdrawal signs on cessation? Are there other responses genetically correlated with their propensity to drink to intoxication?). Interested investigators are invited to contact us with ideas for the use of these mice and/or requests for their provision.
