OF SPECIAL INTEREST: PHENOTYPE AND GENOTYPEQuick refresher. Phenotype is the outward manifestation of a trait, that is, the actual behavior, morphology, or physiology. Genotype is the characterization of the genes associated with thephenotype. Phenotype does not always reflect genotype in the same way because of environmental influences on the phenotype. The Interplay between genes and environment is often measured using heritability, a key concept in genetics. Heritability is the extent to which variation in phenotype In a POPulation of animals is correlated with genetic variation. Calculating heritability allows scientists to investigate the genotypic and environmental roots of phenotypic variability.Genetically based human diseases rank high in human awareness. One such disease, Huntington's, results from the modification of a repeated nucleotide sequence in a single gene, huntingtin. The function of the protein for which huntingtin codes is not fully understood, but the modification of the gene has devastating degenerative neuromuscular effects for its human carriers. Many of the symptoms of Huntington's, such as unstable gait, are behavioral, and because of this, it is tempting to suggest that locomotory stability is under the control of a single gene. In fact, modification of the function of a single gene can indeed dramatically affect behavior, but this does not mean that the particular behavior is under control of that gene. Rather, the failure of the gene means that a needed step in the machinery underlying the behavior is absent. That absence causes multiple systems to fail. If any one of many genes other than huntingtin ceases to function, the results might be equally catastrophic.Fruit flies/ Drosophila melanogaster, offer another example of one gene that ultimately affects behavior. Fruit flies can be rendered less receptive to mating by modifying the gene (the Icebox, or ibx, mutation) that is involved in normal formation of brain structures. Unable to respond to a potential mate, the modified flies cannot mate. Does that mean that the ibx gene "controls" mating? Not at all. It merely controls one small but crucial step in the mating sequence. In fact, virtually every behavior is shaped by genes acting in sequence or in a coordinated fashion to produce that behavior. Most investigators in behavioral and neural genetics now feel that genetic control of any one behavioral trait is dispersed over a large number of neural locations, rather than being coordinated by "executive neurons" that integrate the behavior. If many neural elements are involved in the production of a behavior, it logically follows that many genes must underlie the production and regulation of those neural elements. Because behavior is typically shaped by a large number of genes acting in concert, one of the main goals of contemporary behavioral genetics is to understand how multiple interacting genes can shape specific behavioral patterns.
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