title: Genetics of Interactive Behavior in Silver Foxes (Vulpes vulpes).
abstract: Individuals involved in a social interaction exhibit different behavioral traits that, in combination, form the individual's behavioral responses. Selectively bred strains of silver foxes (Vulpes vulpes) demonstrate markedly different behaviors in their response to humans. To identify the genetic basis of these behavioral differences we constructed a large F2population including 537 individuals by cross-breeding tame and aggressive fox strains. 98 fox behavioral traits were recorded during social interaction with a human experimenter in a standard four-step test. Patterns of fox behaviors during the test were evaluated using principal component (PC) analysis. Genetic mapping identified eight unique significant and suggestive QTL. Mapping results for the PC phenotypes from different test steps showed little overlap suggesting that different QTL are involved in regulation of behaviors exhibited in different behavioral contexts. Many individual behavioral traits mapped to the same genomic regions as PC phenotypes. This provides additional information about specific behaviors regulated by these loci. Further, three pairs of epistatic loci were also identified for PC phenotypes suggesting more complex genetic architecture of the behavioral differences between the two strains than what has previously been observed.
authors.affiliation: Division of Computational Genetics, Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.|Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, BMC Box 582, Uppsala, 751 23, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ronald M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Baker Institute for Animal Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Svetlana V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Temnykh
authors.affiliation: Animal Sciences Department, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
authors.forename: Anastasiya V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Kharlamova
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
authors.forename: Anastasiya V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Vladimirova
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
authors.forename: Rimma G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Gulevich
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
authors.forename: Darya V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Shepeleva
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
authors.forename: Irina N
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: Oskina
authors.affiliation: Baker Institute for Animal Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Gregory M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Acland
authors.affiliation: Division of Computational Genetics, Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.|Section of Statistics, School of Technology and Business Studies, Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden.
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rönnegård
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
authors.forename: Lyudmila N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Trut
authors.affiliation: Division of Computational Genetics, Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.|Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, BMC Box 582, Uppsala, 751 23, Sweden.
authors.forename: Örjan
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Carlborg
authors.affiliation: Animal Sciences Department, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA. avk@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Anna V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Kukekova
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D033481:Chromosomes, Mammalian / Q000235:genetics; D004843:Epistasis, Genetic; D005260:Female; D005589:Foxes / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci / Q000235:genetics; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Aggression; Behavior genetics; Canis familiaris; Domestication; Epistasis; Quantitative trait loci; Social behavior; Vulpes vulpes