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Research Interests

The genetic basis of evolutionary adaptation, and brain mechanisms underlying adaptive behaviors. A model system has been the study of cold adaptation in mice, with emphasis on nest-building. We have available replicated genetic lines in mice that have been selectively bred for over 60 generations for differences in nest-building. These lines also differ in genetically correlated traits, such as body weight and litter size, as well as circadian rhythms and brain (hypothalmus) neurochemistry and neuroanatomy. These lines facilitate studies of both constraints on adaptive evolution, and the path from genes to behavior.

Selected Publications

Bult, A. and C.B. Lynch . 1996. Multiple selection responses in house mice bedirectionally selected for thermoregulatory nest-building behavior: crosses of replicate lines. Behav. Genet. 26 (in press).

Bult, A., L. Hiestand, E.A. van der Zee, and C.B. Lynch . 1993. Circadian rhythms differ between selected mouse lines: a model to study the role of vasopressin neurons in the suprachiasmatic nuclei. Brain Res. Bull. 32:623-627.

Lynch , C.B. 1994. Evolutionary inferences from genetic analyses of cold adaptation in laboratory and wild populations of the house mouse, pp. 278-301, in C.R.B. Boake (ed.) Quantitative genetic studies of behavioral evolution. University of Chicago Press.

Lynch , C.B. 1992. Clinal variation in cold adaptation in Mus domesticus: verification of predictions from laboratory populations. Am. Nat. 139:1219-1236.