Lecture 6: Behavioral Genetics

closed continuum of behavioral program

developmentally fixed

open continuum of behavioral program

developmentally flexible

polygenic inheritance

continuously variable traits influenced by multiple loci

Fischer’s love birds carry leaves

in beak

Peach-faced love birds carry leaves

tuck in tail

in love bird hybrids what is their behavior

6% of times carry in beak

94% times tuck into tail

why is it bad that hybrid lovebirds tuck mostly

they cannot tuck properly, therefore lose nest materials

quantitative genetics

looks at stretches of DNA that have many genes and correlate statistically with traits being studied

QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci)

1. Knowing the number of QTL’s associated with a trait tells us roughly how many genes are associated with a trait

2. once we know the regions correlated with a trait we can narrow our search for candidate genes

what species is an example of artificial genetics

goldfish

example of classical mendelian genetics

honey bees

uu

uncapping behavior

rr

removing behavior

uurr

hygenic

uurR

uncap only

uUrr

remove only

uUrR

non-hygenic

example of molecular genetics

fruit flies

why can fruit flies not associate odor with electric shock

deficient in olfactory learning

besides olfactory learning what do fruit flies lack

esterase that breaks down cyclic AMP

example of knockout study

mice and parental care

mice study

• normal parental care

• abnormal care

fosB -/- mutant (does not have the fos gene)

does not take care of her babies

what influences whether or not mother nurtures her pups

fosB gene

what needs to be turned on to activate fos gene

environmental stimulus, contact with pups

what was alternative hypothesis for mice

what if mutant cannot produce milk

what does wildtype do to activate fos gene

licks babies clean while mutant does not, parental care is learned