  Inter-individual differences in many behaviors are partly due to genetic
differences, but the identification of the genes and variants that influence
behavior remains challenging. Here, we studied an F2 intercross of two outbred
lines of rats selected for tame and aggressive behavior towards humans for more
than 64 generations. By using a mapping approach that is able to identify
genetic loci segregating within the lines, we identified four times more loci
influencing tameness and aggression than by an approach that assumes fixation
of causative alleles, suggesting that many causative loci were not driven to
fixation by the selection. We used RNA sequencing in 150 F2 animals to identify
hundreds of loci that influence brain gene expression. Several of these loci
colocalize with tameness loci and may reflect the same genetic variants.
Through analyses of correlations between allele effects on behavior and gene
expression, differential expression between the tame and aggressive rat
selection lines, and correlations between gene expression and tameness in F2
animals, we identify the genes Gltscr2, Lgi4, Zfp40 and Slc17a7 as candidate
contributors to the strikingly different behavior of the tame and aggressive
animals.

Genomics