Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Horm Behav. 2020 Aug;124:104774. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104774. Epub 2020 May 30.
Identifying the genetic basis of behavior has remained a challenge for biologists. A major obstacle to this goal is the difficulty of examining gene function in an ecologically relevant context. New tools such as CRISPR/Cas9, which alter the germline of an organism, have taken center stage in functional genomics in non-model organisms. However, germline modifications of this nature cannot be ethically implemented in the wild as a part of field experiments. This impediment is more than technical. Gene function is intimately tied to the environment in which the gene is expressed, especially for behavior. Most lab-based studies fail to recapitulate an organism's ecological niche, thus most published functional genomics studies of gene-behavior relationships may provide an incomplete or even inaccurate assessment of gene function. In this review, we highlight RNA interference as an especially effective experimental method to deepen our understanding of the interplay between genes, behavior, and the environment. We highlight the utility of RNAi for researchers investigating behavioral genetics, noting unique attributes of RNAi including transience of effect and the feasibility of releasing treated animals into the wild, that make it especially useful for studying the function of behavior-related genes. Furthermore, we provide guidelines for planning and executing an RNAi experiment to study behavior, including challenges to consider. We urge behavioral ecologists and functional genomicists to adopt a more fully integrated approach which we call "ethological genomics". We advocate this approach, utilizing tools such as RNAi, to study gene-behavior relationships in their natural context, arguing that such studies can provide a deeper understanding of how genes can influence behavior, as well as ecological aspects beyond the organism that houses them.
鉴定行为的遗传基础一直是生物学家面临的挑战。实现这一目标的主要障碍是在生态相关背景下检查基因功能的困难。CRISPR/Cas9 等新工具可以改变生物的种系，在非模式生物的功能基因组学中占据了中心地位。然而，这种性质的种系修饰在野外作为现场实验的一部分在伦理上是不可行的。这种障碍不仅仅是技术上的。基因功能与基因表达的环境密切相关，尤其是行为。大多数基于实验室的研究都无法重现生物的生态位，因此，大多数已发表的关于基因-行为关系的功能基因组学研究可能对基因功能的评估提供不完整甚至不准确的评估。在这篇综述中，我们强调 RNA 干扰作为一种特别有效的实验方法，以加深我们对基因、行为和环境之间相互作用的理解。我们强调了 RNAi 在研究行为遗传学的研究人员中的应用，指出了 RNAi 的独特属性，包括效应的短暂性和将处理过的动物释放到野外的可行性，这使得它特别适合研究与行为相关的基因的功能。此外，我们提供了规划和执行 RNAi 实验以研究行为的指南，包括需要考虑的挑战。我们敦促行为生态学家和功能基因组学家采用更全面的综合方法，我们称之为“行为基因组学”。我们主张这种方法，利用 RNAi 等工具，在其自然环境中研究基因-行为关系，认为这些研究可以更深入地了解基因如何影响行为，以及超越生物个体的生态方面。
