Studying the Genetics of Behavior in the Genomics Era

Abstract

Behavior is a complex trait that is often controlled by the interaction of many genes and the environment. Studying the genetics of behavior is an important endeavor for both understanding how genes produce behavioral phenotypes, and how genes underlying behavior evolve. Genomics has provided several new avenues to study the genetic architecture and evolution of behavior in animals. Primarily, analysis of individual genomes from populations that vary with respect to phenotype has provided a powerful way to identify mutations and genes influencing behavior. Additionally, analysis of neuro-transcriptomes of individuals performing different behaviors helps illuminate the genetic and molecular networks regulating behavior and behavioral plasticity. Here we provide a brief review of how genomic methods can be applied to study the genetics and evolution of animal behavior. We start with an introduction of the ‘forward genetic’ paradigm and cross-based approaches to mapping the genetics of complex traits. We then delve into the application of genome scans and association mapping of complex traits in natural populations. We also illustrate how population genomics can be used to understand the evolution of the genes underlying behavior. We then discuss current limits and knowledge gaps in behavioral genomics research. Genomics provides a very powerful framework to identify putative genes and gene networks underlying behavior in animals.