Genetic Architecture of Behavior

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The Genetic Architecture of Behavior

Behaviors are the ultimate expression of the nervous system. Behaviors in response to changes in the environment are predicated on transcriptional regulation from coordinated genetic networks. Drosophila provides an excellent model system to study the genetic architecture of behavior, because of the availability of a vast number of public resources and the ability to rapidly generate large numbers of genetically identical individuals that can be reared under controlled environmental conditions.

We are currently looking at the genetic architectures of chemosensory behavior, aggression and locomotion. We are using molecular, quantitative and population genetic approaches as well as genomic technologies to identify the genes that shape these behaviors, investigate how they act together as functional ensembles, and assess to what extent polymorphisms in these genes account for phenotypic variation.

These studies are funded by grants from the National Institute for General Medical Sciences and are done in close collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Trudy Mackay.

Representative publications:

Anholt, R. R. H., Dilda, C. L., Chang, S., Fanara, J. J., Kulkarni, N. H., Ganguly, I., Rollmann, S. M., Kamdar, K. P. and Mackay, T. F. C. (2003) The genetic architecture of odor-guided behavior in Drosophila: Epistasis and the transcriptome. Nature Genetics 35: 180-184.

Anholt, R. R. H. (2004) Genetic modules and networks for behavior: Lessons from Drosophila. BioEssays 26: 1299-1306.

Anholt, R. R. H. and Mackay, T. F. C. (2004) The design of genetic analyses of complex behaviors in Drosophila. Nature Reviews Genetics 5: 838-849.
Rollmann, S. M., Mackay, T. F. C. and Anholt, R. R. H. (2005) Pinocchio, a novel protein expressed in the antenna, contributes to olfactory behavior in Drosophila melanogaster. J. Neurobiol. 63: 146-158.