Animal models of gene–environment interactions in schizophrenia

The pathogenesis of schizophrenia and related mental illnesses likely involves multiple interactions between susceptibility genes of small effects and environmental factors. Gene–environment interactions occur across different stages of neurodevelopment to produce heterogeneous clinical and pathological manifestations of the disease. The main obstacle for mechanistic studies of gene–environment interplay has been the paucity of appropriate experimental systems for elucidating the molecular pathways that mediate gene–environment interactions relevant to schizophrenia. Recent advances in psychiatric genetics and a plethora of experimental data from animal studies allow us to suggest a new approach to gene–environment interactions in schizophrenia. We propose that animal models based on identified genetic mutations and measurable environment factors will help advance studies of the molecular mechanisms of gene–environment interplay.