Citation

Bell AM. Adv. Genet. 2009; 68: 83-104.

Affiliation

School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0065-2660(09)68004-4

PMID

20109660

Abstract

Individual animals differ in their propensity to engage in dangerous situations, or in their risk-taking behavior. There is a heritable basis to some of this variation, but the environment plays an important role in shaping individuals' risk-taking propensity as well. This chapter describes some of the challenges in studying the genetic basis of individual differences in risk-taking behavior, arguing new insights will emerge from studies which take a whole-genome approach and which simultaneously consider both genetic and environmental influences on the behavior. The availability of genomic tools for three-spined stickleback, a small fish renowned for its variable behavior, opens up new possibilities for studying the genetic basis of natural, adaptive variation in risk-taking behavior. After introducing the general biology of sticklebacks, the chapter summarizes the existing literature on the genetic and environmental influences on risk-taking behavior, and describes the overall strategy that our group is taking to identify inherited and environmentally responsive genes related to risk-taking behavior in this species. Insights gleaned from such studies will be relevant to our understanding of similar behaviors in other organisms, including ourselves.

Language: en