QTLs and candidate genes for behaviour in natural populations

交配行为的变异是自然种群中性选择、基因流动和物种形成的原因，但它是在遗传水平上研究最困难的性状之一。许多影响行为的基因已被确定在生物体中，如果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster），但很少有研究表明这些基因的等位基因变异对自然种群的变异有多重要。我们将利用基因组信息，遗传评分和统计方法来检测基因在自然人群中的基因，以检查基因的基因组位置影响在北极果蝇物种的生态重要的行为特征的变化。我们将研究在实验室中确定的基因影响这些性状的D melanogaster以及随机背景基因。我们将从两个不同的自然种群（来自芬兰和加拿大）产生半自然种群D montana，并测试基因中的等位基因变异是否与男性歌曲和女性歌曲偏好共同遗传。研究结果将确定影响自然群体中这些性状的基因，并告诉我们这些基因在群体之间和不同物种之间是否保守。这些结果很重要，因为它们使我们能够确定基因的功能是否在物种之间是保守的，这对我们理解基因功能和行为具有重要意义，而这些功能和行为在自然种群中研究得非常少。

Variation in mating behaviour is responsible for sexual selection, gene flow and speciation in natural populations, but is amongst the most difficult traits to study at a genetic level. Numerous genes influencing behaviour have been identified in organisms such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster but there are very few studies of how important allelic variation at these genes is to variation in natural populations. We will take advantage of new techniques in genome information, genetic scoring and statistical approaches to detecting genes in natural populations to examine the genomic location of genes influencing variation in ecologically important behavioural traits in the Arctic fly species Drosophila montana. We will examine genes identified in the laboratory as influencing these traits in D melanogaster as well as random background genes. We will produce semi-natural populations of D montana from two different natural populations (from Finland and Canada) and test whether allelic variation in genes is co-inherited with male song and female song preferences. The results will identify genes influencing these traits in natural populations and tell us if these genes are conserved between populations and between different species. The results are important because they allow us to determine whether the function of genes is conserved across species, which has important implications for our understanding of gene function and behaviour, which are very poorly studied in natural populations.