الفهرس 
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Abstract
The aim of this experiment was to contrast the social behaviour patterns of group-housed B6 and D2 mice using behavioural ethogram to gain further knowledge on strain differences for the social behaviour. Results showed an increase in the levels of social activity in D2 mice strain compared to their B6 counterparts. D2 mice spent more time allogrooming, push crawl, nose to nose sniffing whereas, B6 mice performed higher levels of keeping pace during the social interaction which can be explained by the hyperactivity of this strain. The aim of the second experiment was to study the effect of different stressors, acute emotional stress and long-term individual housing on Adam10 gene expression in brain and adrenal gland. The results of this experiment indicated that the acute emotional stress mainly affected different hypothalamic nucleus. In contrast, long-term individual housing which is considered as chronic stressors caused a strong upregulation of Adam10 gene expression in different brain regions and adrenal gland. Hippocampus is one of the most interesting parts in this study due to its relation to memory and learning abilities. Long-term individual housing caused a significant upregulation in different hippocampus areas. These results may be beneficial in understanding how the animals try to neutralize the detrimental effect of the chronic stress on learning and memory abilities. The aim of this experiment was to locate the main QTL incorporated in controlling depression and anxiety in mice. TST and FST are considered the main tests which used to assess depression in rodents especially mice. Two main significant quantitative trait loci located closely to D4Mit235 and D5Mit108 showing extremely high likelihood ratio statistic (LRS) value and one suggestive locus located closely to D8Mit4 which act cooperatively to control immobility phenotype in the tail suspension test. Also, several suggestive FST-QTL located closely to D6Mit159, D14Mit165 and D17Mit218 which appear to be possibly affecting the immobility phenotyping in forced swimming test.