Comment in:

Nat Genet. 2002 Aug;31(4):327-8.

Nat Genet. 2002 Aug;31(4):329-30.

Identification of genes involved in Drosophila melanogaster geotaxis, a complex behavioral trait.

The Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, San Diego, California 92121, USA.

Identifying the genes involved in polygenic traits has been difficult. In the 1950s and 1960s, laboratory selection experiments for extreme geotaxic behavior in fruit flies established for the first time that a complex behavioral trait has a genetic basis. But the specific genes responsible for the behavior have never been identified using this classical model. To identify the individual genes involved in geotaxic response, we used cDNA microarrays to identify candidate genes and assessed fly lines mutant in these genes for behavioral confirmation. We have thus determined the identities of several genes that contribute to the complex, polygenic behavior of geotaxis.

PMID: 12042820 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]