Symposium for ABS: "Behavior Genetics for the Next Decade: Beyond Heritability"; to be held Corvallis, OR July 2001

University Of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville TN

Investigators

Abstract

Symposium for ABS:"Behavior Genetics for the Next Decade:Beyond Heritability" PI: Christine Boake This is a proposal for a symposium and related activities that are designed to educate behavioral biologists about the developing field that integrates behavior and biotechnology. The symposium will be held at the annual meeting of the Animal Behavior Society in Corvallis, OR on 15 July 2001. It is a follow-up to the workshop on integrating biotechnology and behavior that was held at NSF in August 2000. The symposium was one of the major specific recommendations from the workshop. The related activities are to publish the symposium proceedings as a special issue of the professional journal The American Naturalist, and to include in the special issue an introductory paper that discuss reasons to investigate the genetic architecture of behavioral traits. The symposium speakers either attended at least one of the two biotechnology and behavior workshops, or are in the lab of a participant. The topics of the symposium talks are (a) microarray analyses of the genetic basis of learning and memory, (b) the relationship between the major histocompatibiltiy complex and mating preferences in bird species, (c) the genetics of behavior in guppies, (d) the effects of gene interactions on animal behavior, (e) genetics and social interactions among kin, (f) genetic influences on maternal care, (g) molecular genetics and social behavior, and (h) neurogenetics of fruitfly behavior. These topics were chosen in order to show the listeners the sophisticated genetic techniques can be applied to a great breadth of species and many kinds of behavior.