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Biology
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Neurogenetics of Behaviour—2nd Edition
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Neurogenetics of Behaviour—2nd Edition

A special issue of Biology (ISSN 2079-7737). This special issue belongs to the section "Genetics and Genomics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 1885

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Charalambos Kyriacou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
Interests: neurogenetics; behavioural genetics; Drosophila; crustacea; biological rhythms
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

More than 50 years ago, Seymour Benzer and David Suzuki initiated a new approach to dissecting the function of the nervous system by integrating genetics and behavioural analysis. This approach was called ‘neurogenetics’, and was initially applied to Drosophila. The fly has witnessed remarkable advances in the development of molecular genetic toolkits that can be applied to studying brain and behaviour in ways that would have appeared inconceivable in 1970. This culminated in the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded to Hall, Rosbash, and Young for their neurogenetic dissection of the fly’s circadian behaviour. However, work in other genetic model species, particularly nematodes and mice, has also made significant advances in the neurogenetic analysis of behavioural phenotypes and includes the use of flies, worms, and mice as powerful models for studying human neurodegenerative disorders. Non-model species, often of more ecological interest, where the underlying genetics is less tractable, can now also be studied with ‘omic’ approaches, followed in some cases by targeted mutagenesis using RNAi or CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing. Understanding the complex relationship between brain and behaviour both in health and disease will provide one of the most difficult challenges to 21st century biology.

This Special Issue is dedicated to neurogenetics in its broadest sense, and will highlight the different approaches currently being used to study this exciting area of behavioural research.

Prof. Dr. Charalambos Kyriacou
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biology is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • behaviour
  • genetics
  • molecules
  • species
  • brain
  • networks
  • health
  • disease

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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17 pages, 530 KB  
Article
Neurogenetic Profiles of Anxiety, Impulsivity, and Personality Traits in Elite Combat Sport Athletes: A Cluster-Based Analysis
by Kinga Humińska-Lisowska, Remigiusz Recław, Aleksandra Suchanecka, Krzysztof Chmielowiec, Kinga Łosińska, Jolanta Chmielowiec and Anna Grzywacz
Biology 2026, 15(3), 290; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology15030290 - 6 Feb 2026
Viewed by 734
Abstract
Behavioral regulation in elite combat sports relies on traits such as anxiety, impulsivity, and personality, which are partly shaped by dopaminergic signaling. However, integrative approaches linking multidimensional behavioral profiles with genetic variability in athletes remain limited. This study aimed to identify distinct psychological [...] Read more.
Behavioral regulation in elite combat sports relies on traits such as anxiety, impulsivity, and personality, which are partly shaped by dopaminergic signaling. However, integrative approaches linking multidimensional behavioral profiles with genetic variability in athletes remain limited. This study aimed to identify distinct psychological profiles in elite combat athletes and examine whether these profiles differ in selected dopaminergic gene polymorphisms. A total of 200 male Polish elite combat athletes completed validated questionnaires assessing personality, anxiety, impulsivity, attention-related symptoms, and hedonic capacity. Standardized psychological variables were analyzed using a two-step clustering procedure. Genotype distributions were compared across clusters using chi-square tests. The clusters showed clear behavioral differentiation. Cluster 1 demonstrated higher anxiety, impulsivity, neuroticism, and attention-related symptoms. Cluster 2 showed lower anxiety and impulsivity alongside higher extraversion and conscientiousness. Cluster 3 displayed intermediate behavioral characteristics but the most distinctive genotype pattern. These findings suggest that combining behavioral clustering with genetic data may help characterize meaningful neurogenetic profiles in elite athletes and provide hypothesis-generating insights into genotype–phenotype relationships. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neurogenetics of Behaviour—2nd Edition)
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Review

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28 pages, 1077 KB  
Review
Genetic Variants from Large Cohorts and Familial Studies Implicate Common Mechanisms in Schizophrenia
by Ambreen Kanwal, José V. Pardo and Sadaf Naz
Biology 2026, 15(7), 531; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology15070531 - 26 Mar 2026
Viewed by 811
Abstract
Schizophrenia has an estimated population prevalence of 1%, but the etiology of this devastating psychiatric condition remains largely uncharacterized. A pronounced genetic component underlies schizophrenia, with heritability estimates ranging from 60% to 80%. Until now, genome-wide association studies have successfully identified 287 distinct [...] Read more.
Schizophrenia has an estimated population prevalence of 1%, but the etiology of this devastating psychiatric condition remains largely uncharacterized. A pronounced genetic component underlies schizophrenia, with heritability estimates ranging from 60% to 80%. Until now, genome-wide association studies have successfully identified 287 distinct genetic loci associated with schizophrenia, but these primarily involve common variants that have minimal individual risk. The recent advent of exome sequencing and genome sequencing has identified ultra-rare sequence variants associated with schizophrenia in familial cases as well as in large cohorts. These studies have implicated multiple gene variants that individually have a large effect size in contributing to schizophrenia. A comparison indicates that these genes exhibit high expression levels in the central nervous system and their protein products participate in many converging pathways encompassing synaptic transmission, glutamatergic neurotransmission, chromatin modification processes, transcriptional regulation, and ubiquitin–proteasome degradation. Although model systems have been established for some genes, most remain to be further studied to identify how gene dysfunction correlates with disease. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neurogenetics of Behaviour—2nd Edition)
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