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New Approaches to the Genetic Analysis of Neuroticism and Anxiety

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Abstract

The completion of the human genome project and the complementary genome projects for other species has broadened the scope for novel bioinformatic approaches to quantitative trait locus (QTL) identification. A key issue for quantitative trait nucleotide (QTN) identification is progressing from a large QTL peak, spanning perhaps 50 cM and many hundreds of genes, to a gene or nucleotide variant which is responsible for that QTL effect. The complementary use of mouse models to dissect large syntenic loci in humans is a powerful method for reducing QTL intervals to the order of 1 Mb. This paper presents an overview of the approaches used in our laboratory to ultra-fine map QTLs for anxiety-related traits, and to identify quantitative trait genes (QTG). As new genetic techniques and statistical approaches arise, we are getting closer to identifying those long sought after QTNs.

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Fullerton, J. New Approaches to the Genetic Analysis of Neuroticism and Anxiety. Behav Genet 36, 147–161 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-005-9000-4

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