Theres an On-line Mendelian (something) in Man (OMIM) data base that has been compiled at Oak Ridge National Lab (yes, the birthplace of the atomic bomb is trying its hand at applied constructive science) Theres a guy there named Joe McInerny whos published a lot of lay articles about behavior/genetic links in understandible prose (no allele maps or sub codon structures). I use this link as a great teaching tool for those of us that want to understand without all those annoying years put in doing the actual work .
OAK RIDGE NAT LABS GENOMICS PROJECTS AND THE OMIM DATA BASE.
You can accept that behavior patterns in animals(like p-dog mentioned) , are programmed. The greatest obvious ones are the "work ethic" of border collies, versus the "Happy go-lucky dimmidity" of Irish setters.
You can get to detailed gene maps and more arcane stuff, but I think that ORNLs information is pretty compelling. (Except to certain members of humankind who see things differently)
You are a kind and wondrous man (though I DO detect a note of sarcasm) even if you do have a nose like a turnip.
You couldn't, like, manage a wee distillation of all that knowledge?
PS, my own personal journey into behavioral genetics came not as a sidebar to evolution and paleo, but as a need to learn about my entire family"s history with alcoholism. I found the genetic links and the controls for metabolisis of a breakdown substance in Alcohol that has an "endorphin' sort of reponse and the metabolism of this (THIQ) is genetically linked within many sub populations including the Irish, and Eastern Europeans.
Rabbit, I was not being sarcastic. Im just annoyed with myself at all the important disciplines that I can only glass over and sadly realize that I dont have another life to make a detailed inquiry into these magic and arcane fields.
behavioral responses to genetic structures are a function of producing or not producing proteins and enzymes. The locus where the metabolism of alcohol into THIQ is not on the tip of my tongue but is a mapped allele.THIQ has a multi function in that the behavior patterns associated with THIQ metabolism can be likened to whole body responses to things like sugar defecits etc.
The OMIM also has some information about "risk taking" and its genetic links. I think that someone should look into this and make a report back to us. I sure as hell cant cause Im up to my butt in anacondas and I have to go south again after New Years
However, I find it quite interesting that the more we understand, the more we become mechanically likened to a can of beans with a faulty bar code imprinted on its side, except this faulty bar code and its can of beans, then replicates itself and we have an entire region of the world that is canning beans in a deviant fashion. Now I ask myself, what is the evolutionary benefit of a population of alcoholics? and I later learn that "who says its gotta have a benefit"? just as long as its non-lethal. So, if you follow Goulds theory of exaptation, alcoholim , as a genetically driven response, still occurs as a standard expansion thats predicted by a Hardy-Weinberg expansion of traits.
