A gene is the basic physical and functional unit of heredity.

Genes
are made up of DNA. Some genes act as instructions to make
molecules called proteins. However, many genes do not code for
proteins. The Human Genome Project estimated that humans
have between 20,000 and 25,000 genes.
Most genes are the same in all people, but a small number of
genes (less than 1 percent of the total) are slightly different
between people.

This variation in genes is what makes us all unique, whether in

terms of hair colour, skin colour or even the shape of our faces.

You might think it is the same with human behavior also …

Now lets talk about this

That is Genetics and behavior

Human behaviour genetics is a subfield of the field of behaviour

genetics that studies the role of genetic and environmental
influences on human behaviour. Classically, human behavioural
geneticists have studied the inheritance of behavioural traits. The
field was originally focused on testing whether genetic influences
were important in human behavior (e.g., do genes influence
human behavior). It has evolved to address more complex
questions such as: how important are genetic and/or
environmental influences on various human behavioral traits; to
what extent do the same genetic and/or environmental influences
impact the overlap between human behavioral traits; how do
genetic and/or environmental influences on behavior change
across development; and what environmental factors moderate
the importance of genetic effects on human behavior (gene-
environment interaction).[1] The field is interdisciplinary, and draws
from genetics, psychology, and statistics. Most recently, the field
has moved into the area of statistical genetics, with many
behavioral geneticists also involved in efforts to identify the
specific genes involved in human behavior, and to understand
how the effects associated with these genes changes across
time, and in conjunction with the environment.[2]

In 1869, Francis Galton published the first empirical work in

human behavioural genetics, Hereditary Genius. Here, Galton
intended to demonstrate that "a man's natural abilities are derived
by inheritance, under exactly the same limitations as are the form
and physical features of the whole organic world." Like most
seminal work, he overstated his conclusions. His was a family
study on the inheritance of giftedness and talent. Galton was
aware that resemblance among familial relatives can be a
function of both shared inheritance and shared environments.
Contemporary human behavioural quantitative genetics studies
special populations such as twins and adoptees.
The initial impetus behind this research was to demonstrate that
there were indeed genetic influences on human behaviour.
In psychology, this phase lasted for the first half of the 20th
century largely because of the overwhelming influence
of behaviourism in the field. Later behavioural genetic research
focused on quantitative methods.
All behavior is the joint product of heredity and environment, but
differences in behavior can be apportioned between hereditary
and environment. The Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb has
likened the nature-nurture controversy to an argument about
whether the area of a rectangle depends more importantly on its
width or length. For any given rectangle the area is always a joint
product of the two dimensions. However, when comparing two
rectangles having different areas, it is meaningful to ask to what
extent the different areas can be attributed to differences in either
of the dimensions. (Note the corollary: two rectangles can have
the same area but different dimensions). Substituting, we can
see that any behavior is always the joint product of heredity and
environment, but differences in behavior can be apportioned
between differences in heredity and in environment.

Geneticists are trying to figure it outifcertain genes can explain

differences in behavior

Research over the pastfew years has shown that the genetics
behind the complex behavior is tricker than thought. Differences
in behavior are not the result of one two or hand full of genes.
For example the activity of 4000 of drosophila melanogaster
15000geneswill determine how tough the insects will get with
each other to get food

So if the genetics of behavior is that complicated in a fruit fly

imagine how complicated it would for human .

After aa the brain of fruit fly contains around 100000neurons while

the brain of humans contains around 100 billion neurons

Behavioural Genetic

The biological structure is intimately related to the human

behaviour that is why genetic inheritance which shapes the
structure may have much to do with behaviour. Most physical
characteristics such as height, hair color, blood type and eye color
are largely shaped by heredity. What about other characteristics
such as intelligence, moodiness, impulsiveness and shyness? To
what extent does human behaviors is influenced by genetics?
These question focus on the behavioral genetics – as a field that
studies the influence of genetic factors on behavioral traits. As
noted by one of the most prolific researcher in this field, Robert
Plomin, behaviour genetics is intimately involved with providing an
explanation of why people differ (Plomin 1997).

Every person must exhibit certain behaviours that are critical for
life, and the species must maintain a pool of individuals that
contains behaviours consistent with the production of offspring.
Those behaviours include the ability to pro c u re meals
successfully in a competitive environment; eating; avoidance of
obvious mortal danger; and, for at least a subset of the
population, finding a mate and re producing. It is beneficial to the
species for those behaviors to occur naturally. Even a newborn
infant knows without being taught how to suckle to obtain milk. As
development progresses, feeding behavior becomes more
complex and is subjected to a range of individual experiences and
environmental influences. Thus, even though all of us experience
the urge to eat, each of us maintains substantial control over the
process of choosing to eat a particular meal. Clearly biology and
environment (including experience) both play roles in this critical
behavior. Biology’s role in behavior is obvious because all
behavior is controlled by the brain and the nervous system.
Genes choreograph the development of the brain through
transcription and translation of DNA into proteins. Through those
processes, genes affect the molecular structure of the brain at
every level, including brain anatomy, neurotransmitter levels and
receptors, and the processes that control the development of
interconnections among neurons. Environment also plays a role
by modifying or disrupting genetically encoded actions. Variation
in the genes that control brain development may result in variation
of behavior. It is not necessary to consider anything as complex
as brain anatomy to see that genes may influence complex
behavior. Consider a simple, metabolic process .Variation in the
gene that codes for aldehyde dehydrogenase, an enzyme that
functions in metabolizing alcohol, can result in an inactive
enzyme. When individuals who have only the mutated form of this
gene drink alcohol, they cannot break down a toxic alcohol
metabolite. As a result, every time they drink alcohol, they get
sick. As a further consequence of this mutation, they are less
likely to drink alcohol than people without this genetic variant. In
other words, a gene influences their drinking behavior.

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Although genes are responsible for the biological substrates of

behavior, behavior also is influenced by experience and other
aspects of the environment. When we talk about the environment,
we mean a person’s culture, experience, and interactions with
family and friends, as well as anything else that is non-genetic,
including prenatal exposure to toxins, a brick falling on the
person’s head, and an infection with a pathogenic agent that has
some effect on the central nervous system. Using drinking habits
as an example, some individuals never even try alcohol because
of religious beliefs or cultural influences. Because exposure to
alcohol is necessary for behaviors related to alcohol consumption
to be expressed, these people never express an entire set of
behaviors. Some cultures provide greater opportunity for
exposure than other cultures. For example, regular consumption
of alcohol with meals is the norm in some cultures or families but
is discouraged in others. At a different level of environmental
influence, alcohol can act as a prenatal environmental toxin when
consumed by pregnant women during a specific period of fetal
development. One possible outcome is reduced cognitive
capacity (intelligence) of the child. Another example of an
environmental toxin is lead exposure, which is a commonly
recognized problem for inhabitants of older buildings in which
lead-based paint has been used or lead is used in the plumbing.
At certain stages of development, lead exposure also can lead to
reduced cognitive capacity. In both of those examples, toxins
prevent the brain from developing normally, which results in
effects on behavior. Although we have discussed how genetics
and environment influence behavior and, to some extent, form the
substrates of behavior, it is rare for a particular outcome in a
particular situation to be wholly specified by these factors. That is,
the influences of the environment and genetics do not supplant
volition, and behavior is not determined by experiences or genes.
The search for genetics factors of behaviour has been active
since 1970s. The goals of research in behavioral genetics are to
answer questions about the existence and nature of genetic and
environmental influences on behavior. Questions arise at a variety
of levels of inquiry, and there are different methods that have
been developed to answer diff e rent types of questions.

The basic genetic questions are:

Does a behavioral trait run in families?

If it does, can genes help explain family resemblance and

individual difference?

If so, what is the nature of the genetic influence (is it inherited in a

Mendelian pattern or is it something more complex)?

W here is the genes located?

What proteins (gene products) do the genes encode?

How does each gene product function?

With these questions in mind, there are two primary types of

methods: those based on the principles of genetic epidemiology
and those that employ the technology of molecular genetics.

In genetic epidemiology (the study of the clustering of specific

traits in families and populations), the goal is to provide designs
that permit quantification of genetic and environmental effects. In
molecular genetics, the goals are to establish the biochemical
basis of genetic effects.

To quantify genetic and environmental effects, methods in genetic

epidemiology are designed to subdivide variability among
members of a specified population into genetic and environmental
components. Frequently, the environmental influences are broken
down further into those that are shared by family members and
those that are unique to the individual. Heritability is a commonly
used term that describes the proportion of phenotypic variation
among individuals in a specific population that can be attributed to
genetic effects. The reason many behavioral geneticists focus on
the genetic effects is that the chromosome theory of inheritance
and the central dogma of molecular biology provide a theoretical
context for investigating and testing genetic hypotheses. No
equivalent, comprehensive, theoretical framework exists for
studying environmental effects.

Family studies: An obvious place to look for genetic effects is

within families. Family studies are useful because families are
easy to find, and most family studies can provide information
about genetic influences on a trait, mode of inheritance (for
single-gene traits), and sometimes number of genes involved (for
polygenic, or multiple-gene, traits). The obvious problem with
relying on resemblance among family members is that they share
environmental influences as well as genes. For example, if we
merely determine which traits run in families and assume that all
traits that run in families are genetic, we will falsely conclude that
traits such as religious affiliation, wealth, and preference for cold
cereal have a genetic basis. We can conclude from family
resemblance that there may be genetic influences on a trait, but
we need more specialized approaches to separate genetic
influences from shared environmental influences.

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Twin studies: Identical twins provide an experiment of nature
where both members of a twin pair are entirely alike for all of their
genes on average. Fraternal twins, in contrast, are genetically like
non-twin siblings in that they share only half of their genes. Both
kinds of twins share environmental influences to a similar degree
(but greater than might be expected for non-twin siblings).
Because identical twins and fraternal twins differ only in the
amount of DNA that they share, greater similarity for a particular
trait in identical twins than in fraternal twins is evidence for a
genetic contribution to that trait. If identical and fraternal twins are
similar for a particular trait, this is evidence for a share the
environmental contribution to the trait. The ability to separate
genetic and shared environmental influences using twins is a
powerful advantage of using twins. A further advantage is that
both members of a twin pair are the same age. Since many
behaviors are affected by age or developmental stage, this is an
important advantage over family studies, where age can differ by
an entire generation. A disadvantage of relying on twins is that
they are more difficult to find than families. A critical implicit
assumption is that identical twins and fraternal twins share
environments to the same extent, which may be an overly
simplistic assumption. There are other more complicated issues
that arise in the context of twin studies that are beyond the scope
of discussion in this module but that must be considered by
scientists when interpreting results.

Adoption studies: Both twins and other family members share

environmental influences to some extent. The study of children
who have been adopted at an early age provides a unique
opportunity to separate genetic effects cleanly from shared
environmental effects. Any systematically observed similarity for a
given trait between biological parents and adopted-away children
must reflect genetic, rather than environmental, effects. In
contrast, any systematically observed similarity between adoptive
parents and children they have adopted must reflect shared
environmental effects. The clean distinction between shared
effects that are genetic in origin and shared effects that are
environmental in origin makes the adoption study design
appealing and powerful (although there are possible confounding
factors, such as prenatal environmental influences). On the other
hand, adoption studies are extremely difficult to conduct because
there are very few children who are adopted in contemporary
society, and there are serious issues of confidentiality that make it
difficult to link adopted children to their biological parents.
Furthermore, adopting parents tend to be older, wealthier, and
healthier than the corresponding biological parents, who
frequently are very young and usually are in difficult life
circumstances.

These sampling issues raise questions about the general

applicability of conclusions drawn from studies of this sort.
Historically, adoption studies have been very important in
psychiatric genetics, particularly for establishing a genetic basis
for schizophrenia at a time when wholly environmental
hypotheses were heavily favored.

 Drug use, environmental exposure, and eating habits have

all been linked to changes in gene expression. While some
such influences are harmless or even beneficial, others can
be extremely detrimental. Researchers hope to identify these
behaviors and their effects.
 EEG and PET scans show psychologists how certain
behaviors trigger reactions in the brain, which can lead to the
discovery of certain determinant genes, such as those that
influence addictive behaviors.
 Exposure of a fetus to alcohol and drugs can lead to a host
of developmental problems after birth, the most serious of
which is fetal alcohol syndrome.
Bibliography www.ukessays .com

http//en.wikipidea.org

www.yourgenome.org

www.genomenewsnetwork.org

https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/basics/gene