No sex difference in mouse digit ratio: reply to Voracek
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Douglas Wahlsten, Visiting Professor (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Abstract: Voracek specializes in the study of human non-neural morphology (Voracek & Fisher 2002) and suicide (Voracek 2005), and he does not appear to appreciate the methods used in experimental mouse genetics. We (Bailey et al. 2005) investigated 2D:4D digit ratio in inbred mouse strains, because the findings can lead directly and fruitfully to a genetic analysis of factors that lead to higher and lower ratios (we follow the convention of using 2D:4D to refer to this digit ratio as have all previous published animal and human studies of hind limb digit ratios. We know of no published work using Voracek’s 2T:4T nomenclature. A PubMed search over the past 5 years uncovered not one paper using 2T:4T but 135 using 2D:4D, including all seven investigating hind limb digits). Indeed, our study detected substantial and interesting strain differences, although significant sex differences were not found. Voracek is evidently disappointed at the lack of a sex difference in our data and seeks to dismiss them by branding our work a ‘pilot study’ whose results ‘diverge from other mouse evidence’.
No sex difference in mouse digit ratio: reply to Voracek
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Created on 6/7/2011
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Genes, Brain & Behavior, 5: 300-302.
- Language: English
- Date: 2006
- Keywords
- Mice, Sex difference, Physiological variation