Quantitative trait linkage mapping in anthropology

Recent years have seen rapid progress in several areas of both biomedical a nd anthropological genetics. While genetic analyses have come to play a sig nificant role in biological anthropology, there has been little use of mode rn methods for linkage mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTLs). It is now feasible to design research studies to investigate the quantitative geneti cs of complex phenotypes that are of primary importance to traditional ques tions in biological anthropology. Complex traits such as functionally signi ficant morphological features, physiological characteristics or aspects of behavior can be examined to estimate the influence of genetic variation on within-species phenotypic variation. In addition, new methods for mapping q uantitative trait loci provide opportunities to identify the regions within chromosomes that contain the functional genes of interest. This review sum marizes molecular genetic and statistical genetic approaches to QTL mapping , and presents examples of how this approach can expand the scope of anthro pological genetics to include mapping and identifying individual genes that influence complex phenotypic traits relevant to fundamental questions in b iological anthropology (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.