This experiment is a continuing project examining if tolerance to ethanol following chronic exposure has a large genetically determined component. Over the past year 3 selected generations of both replicate lines and rats from the two control lines (1200 rats in total) have been tested and bred for the degree of tolerance to ethanol. Presently, the fifth generation of the High Tolerant (AHT, BHT) and Low Tolerance (ALT, BLT) lines have been tested. Based on the results of previous studies using an ethanol related trait as the phenotype, selected lines do not clearly start to separate until after the fifth generation. Thus, this project is still in the early stages, and an evaluation of the success of the project is premature. However, the B replicate lines have remained separate for the last 4 generations, while the A replicate line remain close in their tolerant scores. There also appears to be less variance in the degree of tolerance acquired across the generations tested.
