Behavioural genetics and the evolution of social behaviour

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A fundamental goal of behavioural genetics is to understand how complex social behaviour evolves. From humans to social insects to mole rats, social animals fascinate us, probably because it is so remarkable that evolution has, in these few cases, favored cooperation and altruism over conflict and selfishness. We know from the theory of social evolution that these seemingly non-Darwinian traits can evolve via a type of kin-mediated natural selection, known as 'kin selection', provided the trait has a genetic basis. Aspects of social behaviour are certainly evolved, but we do not yet know which genes are under selection, or how these genes interact with each other and their environment to influence the social phenotype. Moreover, sociality will, in turn, influence the expression and transmission of genes, but it is not always clear how. What is clear is that to fully understand the evolution of social traits, we need to think in molecular terms.