Harvard team leads breakthrough on the genetics of parenting
Why is it that some species seem to be particularly attentive parents while others leave their young to fend for themselves? For years, scientists have believed one of the major drivers is experience — an animal raised by an attentive parent, the argument goes, is likely to be an attentive parent itself. A Harvard study is challenging that idea, and breaking new ground by uncovering links between the activity of specific genes and parenting differences across species. Led by Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Molecular and Cellular Biology Hopi Hoekstra and postdoctoral researcher Andrés Bendesky, the study found not only that different genes may influence behaviors in males and females, but also that the gene for the hormone vasopressin appears to be closely tied to nest-building behavior in parenting mice. The research is described in an April 19 paper published in Nature. “This is one of the first cases in which...