@article{ref1,
title="Approaching the genomics of risk-taking behavior",
journal="Advances in genetics",
year="2009",
author="Bell, Alison M.",
volume="68",
number="",
pages="83-104",
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.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0065-2660",
doi="10.1016/S0065-2660(09)68004-4",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2660(09)68004-4"
}