Varieties of behavioral natural variation.
Behavior is flexible at different timescales, modifiable by experience in the short term and by evolution in the long term. In order to understand how behavior evolves, we must both understand how trait differences between individuals are inherited and how a subset of these differences get fixed within a species' lineage. Work over the past few decades has shown that this will not be easy; the genetic basis of heritable behavioral differences between two individuals is typically complex, caused by multiple genetic variants of small effect. Here I describe how the underlying genetic networks impact the types of genetic variants that can be selected for by evolution.
School of Biology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0210, United States. Patrick.McGrath@biology.gatech.edu
Patrick T
PT
McGrath
D000818:Animals; D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D010641:Phenotype; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable