Contribution of Sequenced Genomes to Understanding Behavior

The fifth Gordon Research Conference on Genes and Behavior is taking place fourteen years after the publication of the first animal genome to be sequenced: the Caenorhabditis elegans genome in 1998. Since that time genomes for many organisms have been sequenced and a vast amount of data has been generated. One of the key questions posed at this Gordon Conference is how sequenced genomes have altered our thinking about genes and behavior. The study of genes and behavior fits into several different disciplines and each takes a different approach to this field. In one arena, a handful of laboratory-based behaviors and a few model organisms dominate the field of molecular neuroscience and behavioral genetics. In another arena, behavioral ecology focuses on naturally occurring behavior and how it evolves, but pays little attention to the underlying neural and genetic substrates. While it is important that these individual specialties continue to be pursued with vigor, we believe that a deeper understanding of the relationship between genes and behavior will require an active integration of both approaches and perspectives. Researchers from both arenas have begun to use sequenced genomes in their research, and sessions will be designed to share tools, techniques and insights in to how sequenced genomes have advanced our understanding of behavior. The mandate of the Genes and Behavior Gordon Conference is to bring together experts in the different sub-disciplines that study genes and behavior to create an environment in which experts and trainees can build connections and collaborations to put the disparate pieces of the puzzle together to forge a comprehensive approach to the study of genes and behavior.