Genetics and Genomics Commons^™

Forward Genomics Of A Complex Trait: Mammalian Basal Metabolic Rate, Caleigh Charlebois

Honors College

The significance and nature of basal metabolic rate, a metabolic parameter recorded under specific laboratory conditions, are contested among biologists. Although it was most likely important in the evolution of endothermy in mammals and is associated with many other traits inter-and intra-specifically, the specifics of its heritability and its genetic determinants are largely unknown. Two bioinformatics pipelines are available which can associate traits with their genetic correlates given only whole genomes and phenotypes for each animal. However, extant pipelines were created with binary traits in mind. This leaves a void in our ability to associate continuous traits such as basal …