Search for informative polymorphisms in candidate genes: clock genes and circadian behaviour in blue tits.

ABSTRACT: The identification of functional polymorphisms in genes that underlie behavioural trait variation is a challenging but intriguing task in evolutionary biology. Given the wealth of genomic data and the increasing number of genotype-phenotype association studies in model organisms, one can ask whether and how this information can be used for non-model organisms. Here we describe two strategies to search for likely functional polymorphisms in candidate genes in a bird species that has been intensively studied by behavioural and population ecologists, the blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus. In the first approach we searched for repeating elements in coding regions of the genome using information about repeats in Gallus gallus genes. The rationale is that tandem-repeat elements have a high potential

SUBMITTER: Steinmeyer C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2832883 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature