High-precision genetic mapping of behavioral traits in the diversity outbred mouse population

Historically our ability to identify genetic variants underlying complex behavioral traits in mice has been limited by low mapping resolution of conventional mouse crosses. The newly developed Diversity Outbred (DO) population promises to deliver improved resolution that will circumvent costly fine-mapping studies. The DO is derived from the same founder strains as the Collaborative Cross (CC), including three wild-derived strains. Thus the DO provides more allelic diversity and greater potential for discovery compared to crosses involving standardmouse strains.Wehave characterized 283 male and female DO mice using open-field, light–dark box, tail-suspension and visual-cliff avoidance tests to generate 38 behavioral measures. We identified several quantitative trait loci (QTL) for these traits wit