Hippocampal gene expression analysis highlights Ly6a/Sca-1 as candidate gene for previously mapped novelty induced behaviors in mice.

In this study, we show that the covariance between behavior and gene expression in the brain can help further unravel the determinants of neurobehavioral traits. Previously, a QTL for novelty induced motor activity levels was identified on murine chromosome 15 using consomic strains. With the goal of narrowing down the linked region and possibly identifying the gene underlying the quantitative trait, gene expression data from this F(2)-population was collected and used for expression QTL analysis.