Andres Bendesky, MD, PhD
Research Interest
There are profound differences in behavior among individuals of a species and across species. Much effort has been devoted to the observation and theory of behavioral variation, but the molecular, genetic, and neurobiological mechanisms that generate and maintain such diversity are largely unknown. My lab studies the mechanisms of behavioral variation from genetic and neurobiological angles—by identifying specific genes involved and how they impact the brain, and by characterizing functional variation in neuronal circuits. We then analyze the common themes that emerge to describe the evolution of behavior.
Inspired by the evolution of behavior and ethology, my lab also studies the neurobiology of social and other complex behaviors important to animals in their habitat by using the right species for specific questions, such as pair bonding, parental care, response to threats, and aggression.
Work in my lab focuses primarily on deer mice (genus Peromyscus) and on Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens). Deer mice are an excellent system to study natural variation in behavior because (1) there is a large diversity of behavior within and among species and many of these species are interfertile, permitting forward genetic analyses; (2) Peromyscus is diverged from laboratory mice and rats, providing an opportunity to discover biological features that differ from traditional model species; nonetheless, many tools developed for laboratory mice and rats also work in Peromyscus; and (3) Peromyscus mice can breed in the laboratory in the same conditions as laboratory mice, allowing us to perform controlled experiments. Siamese fighting fish have been selectively bred for fighting for over 1,000 years, which has made them exquisitely aggressive. We study the neurobiological bases of their aggressive behavior and how evolution has shaped their genes, brains and behavior.
- Postdoc, Harvard University
- PhD, Rockefeller University
- MD, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Bendesky A, Brew J, Francis KX, Tello Corbetto EF, González Ariza A, Nogales Baena S, Shimmura T. Noncoding genetic variation in ISPD distinguishes gamecocks from nongame chickens. bioRxiv 2023.08.16.553562v1.
Palmiotti A, Lichak MR, Shih P-Y, Kwon, YM, Bendesky A. Genetic manipulation of betta fish. Front Genome Ed 2023;5:1167093.
Nadjsombati MS, Niepoth N, Webeck LM, Kennedy EA, Kones DL, Billipp TE, Baldridge MT, Bendesky A, von Moltke J. Genetic mapping reveals Pou2af2/OCA-TI-dependent tuning of tuft cell differentiation and intestinal type 2 immunity. Science Immunology 2023;8: eade5019.
Khadraoui M, Merritt J, Hoekstra HE, Bendesky A. Post-mating parental behavior trajectories differ across four species of deer mice. PLoS ONE 2022;17:e0276052.
Blau A, Gebhardt C, Bendesky A, Paninski L, Wu A. SemiMultiPose: A semi-supervised multi-animal pose estimation framework. arXiv. 2022;2204.07072.
Runge JN, König B, Lindholm AK, Bendesky A. Parent-offspring inference in inbred populations. Molecular Ecology Resources. 2022; doi: 10.1111/1755-0998.13680.
Kwon YM, Vranken N, Hoge C, Lichak MR, Norovich AL, Francis KX, Camacho-Garcia J, Bista I, Wood J, McCarthy S, Chow W, Tan HH, Howe K, Bandara S, von Lintig J, Rüber L, Durbin R, Svardal H, Bendesky A. Genomic consequences of domestication of the Siamese fighting fish. Science Advances 2022;8:eabm4950.
Media coverage:
Sarah Zhang. The surprise hiding in the DNA of pet fish. The Atlantic. May 14, 2021.
Christie Wilcox. My Daughter’s First Pet—the Next Big Model Organism? The Scientist. Jul 15, 2021.
Moore KJM*, Cahill J*… Bendesky A… The gLAMP Consortium, Mason CE. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) detection of SARS-CoV-2 and myriad other applications. Journal of Biomolecular Techniques 2021;32:228-275.
Ng D, Pinharanda A, Vogt MC… Bendesky A. WHotLAMP: A simple, inexpensive, and sensitive molecular test for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva. PLoS ONE. 2021;16: e0257464.
Wu A, Buchanan EK… Bendesky A… Cunningham J, Paninski L. Deep Graph Pose: a semi-supervised deep graphical model for improved animal pose tracking. NeurIPS. 2020.
Niepoth N, Bendesky A. How natural genetic variation shapes behavior. Annual Reviews of Genomics and Human Genetics. 2020;21:437-463.
Kelley DB, Ballag IH, Barkan CL, Bendesky A, et al. Coordinating and evolving neural circuits for vocal communication. Journal of Neuroscience. 2020;40:22-36.
Bendesky A, Kwon, YM, Lassance JM, Lewarch CL, Yao S, Peterson BK, He MX, Dulac C, Hoekstra HE. The genetic basis of parental care evolution in monogamous mice. Nature. 2017;544:434-439. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22074
News and Views:
Phelps SM. Animal behaviour: How to build a better dad. Nature. 2017;544:418–419.
Snyder-Mackler M, Tung J. Vasopressin and the Neurogenetics of Parental Care. Neuron. 2017;95:9-11
Hager R. The genes that make a good parent. Trends in Genetics. 2017; 33:492-494.
Media coverage:
Andrea Marks. The mouse parent trap. Scientific American. July 2017.
Bendesky A, Pitts J, Rockman MV, Chen WC, Tan MW, Kruglyak L, Bargmann CI. Long-range regulatory polymorphisms affecting a GABA receptor constitute a quantitative trait locus (QTL) for social behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans. PLoS Genet. 2012;8:e1003157.
Bendesky A, Bargmann CI. Genetic contributions to behavioural variation at the gene-environment interface. Nature Reviews Genetics. 2011.;12:48-56.
Bendesky A, Tsunozaki M, Rockman MV, Kruglyak L, and Bargmann CI. Catecholamine receptor polymorphisms affect decision-making in C. elegans. Nature. 2011;472:313-318.
For a complete list of publications, please visit PubMed.gov
- Circuits Neuroscience
- Neuroethology
- Social Behavior
- Behavioral Genetics
- Evolution of Brain and Behavior
- Mechanisms of Behavioral Diversity