The domesticated brain: genetics of brain mass and brain structure in an avian species.

ABSTRACT: As brain size usually increases with body size it has been assumed that the two are tightly constrained and evolutionary studies have therefore often been based on relative brain size (i.e. brain size proportional to body size) rather than absolute brain size. The process of domestication offers an excellent opportunity to disentangle the linkage between body and brain mass due to the extreme selection for increased body mass that has occurred. By breeding an intercross between domestic chicken and their wild progenitor, we address this relationship by simultaneously mapping the genes that control inter-population variation in brain mass and body mass. Loci controlling variation in brain mass and body mass have separate genetic architectures and are therefore not directly constrained. Gene

SUBMITTER: Henriksen R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5043184 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature