Midterm 1 (1-8) Flashcards
Fly Learning & Human Mental Health
-Fruit flies = gen sim to humans
- Put flies in chamber lined w/ elec coil & specific scent
- -Given slight shock
- Waiter 24hrs & re-tested
- Flies chose b/w 2 chambers; chose chamber w novel scent
Uses of Animal Behaviour Research
- Entertainment: pets, zoos, safaris, TV etc
- Protection of rare, endangered animals
- Model systems for human applications
- Control of pests & damage-reduction
Canadian Geese; Species Identification
- Mitochondrial DNA sequences from tissue samples matched known genetic material for CG
- Knowing migratory paths can reduce risk of future collisions
- -Integrating this info w bird migration patterns, bird-detecting radar & bird dispersal programs @ airports can minimize the risk of crashes in the future
Animal
-Organism that feeds on organic matter- typically having specialized sensory organs, nerv syst & able to respond rapidly to stimuli; multicellular
Microbiom
- All organisms that live w/in us
- -Ie. inside our body –> inside our large intestines
Whooping Crane Video
- Don’t want to humanize chicks
- Imprinting: first thing they see/ smell = their parent
- Humans taught them how to fly/ migrate
- Learning
- -Chicks imprint on caregiver
- -Young learn migration route from adults
- –Lead birds w/ planes
Why Do We Depend on Animals?
- Pollination
- Soil quality
- Biological control (pests)
- Protein
- ETC-
Accupuncture & its Placebo Effect
- Acupuncture = insert needles @ blocked Qi (chee = life energy) points & relieve stress
- Similar results b/w actual acupuncture (51% better) & sham acupuncture (53% better)
Blind Experiment
- Person who collects data is blind to subjects assignments to treatments
- Relevant for all scientific disciplines
Double Blind Experiment
- Data collector & subject are both blind
- Relevant for human subjects only
- -Humans = greatly bias!
House Finches & Plumage Colour
Proximately…
- Plumage colour comes from carotenoid pigments ingested in food
- +carotenoid = +pigment
Ultimately…
- +ve correlation b/w male mating success & their colour intensity
- Sexual selection; females estimate male quality based on their colour intensity
Animal Behaviour
Self generated movement of either a body part or the whole body in animals
Fruit Fly Courtship
-Males chase females who initially reject them
-Males sing to females
-After a while, female may accept male as a mate
=Copulation
Turtle Video Clip; Non-random Mortality
-Non-random mortality = the fast & strong = + likely to survive
- Turtles need to get to the sea asap after hatching b/c of the high predation on land
- -Small portion make it & reach sexual maturity
Grizzly Bear Video; Eating Patterns
- Winter: hibernation, slowed pulse, no eating/ drinking, empty energy stores (~1mill cals)
- Spring: wake up, find food quick- roots, grass etc
- Summer: pack on the pounds to survive, salmon = protein & fat rich, clams etc
- Fall: seasonal change = bears never feel full, eating anything & everything they find, need to store ~1mill cals for the winter
What Mechanisms Change Biological Traits?
Morphological Plasticity
-Go to gym & grow muscles
Experience Based Adaptation
-Pupil adaptation, acclimatization for temp/ altitude etc
Evolution
A change over generations in the proportions of individual organisms differing genetically in one or more traits
Galapagos Finch; Beak Size
- Large/ small beaks = good for large/ small seeds
- Dry weather = no small seeds = no small birds = increase in beak size
- -Heritable variation in beak size
- -Higher survival of individuals w larger beaks
Learning
- Ability to acquire novel neuronal representations of new info
- Is adaptive when there is sufficient assoc b/w cue & enviro @ some point in an individuals life span
Grasshoppers & Learning
- Grasshoppers learn to eat a balanced diet w optimal proportions of nutrients (ie. carbs & protein)
- Learning group was able to create association
- -Learning allowed for a 20% higher growth rate
- Random group couldn’t learn, but when they did find the balanced diet for that meal, they spent sufficient time eating it
Rats & Social Learning
- Demonstrators = taken to another room & ate either cocoa or cinnamon flavoured food
- -Taken back to original room & interacted w observer rat for 15min
- –Observer was later more likely to consume the same type of food that its demonstrator had consumed
Social Learning
- Learning through society
- Faster spread of learnt behaviour amongst individs that’s transferrable b/w gens
Individual Learning
- Stays w/in that single individual & can’t be transferred to next gen
- Majority of animals don’t show soc learning
- Change w/in individs = measured on same individs & after some experience
Artificial Selection
- Process by which humans selectively choose & breed animals w some preferred characteristics
- The variation in reprod success (fitness) of individuals = determined by humans who decide which individs should reprod
- Humans use selective breeding change & over time proportion of individs differs dramatically
- -Lots of organisms we interact w have been artificially selected for
Evolution by Artificial Selection
- Process by which humans using selective breeding change the proportions of individ animals differing genetically in 1+ traits over time
- -Can only succeed w a trait w heritable variation
Heritability
- Contribution of genes to the observed variation in a trait
- -Variation in fitness!
- A heritable gene that can be passed down through generations
Natural Selection
- The variation in reprod success (fitness) of individuals is determined naturally
- Needs heritable individual variation that corresponds to variation in fitness
Fitness
- Success of an individ in reprod
- Direct fitness = offspring
- Indirect fitness = helping those related to you
- Inclusive fitness = Direct + Indirect
- rb > c
Evolution by Natural Selection
- Change over time in proportions of individ animals differing genetically in 1+ traits that affect fitness
- Heritable individual variation that corresponds to variation in fitness is a NECESSARY condition
- -Animals traits like behav & cog traits = products of evolution & many traits keep evolving
Red Deer Reproduction
Female
-Normal distribution
Male
- Very few males w lots of reprod
- Lots of males w very little reprod
- Males fight for females; strongest & toughest get the most
Guppies & Antipredator Behaviour
Low Predation
- Bigger, less abundant, older @ maturity
- Sexual selection & can afford bigger/ more spots
- -Females prefer males w more spots
- Guppies outgrow predators & spot size doesn’t matter
High Predation
- Smaller, more abundant, younger @ maturity
- Selection for less spots; don’t want to be noticed by predators
Lab-born fish
-High pred exhibited better anti-pred behav & stayed in bigger groups, further from predators & looked more
Cricket Singing; Textbook
- Crickets sing to females
- Flies like the singing & attack crickets & kill them
- Crickets who stopped singing got less females
- Sneaky crickets who can’t/ don’t sing stole other singing crickets females
Chromosom
-Long strand of DNA consisting of diff genes
Gene
-Functional unit of heredity
mRNA
-Messenger RNA
Locus
-Site on chromosome occupied by specific gene
Allele
-One of several forms of the same gene
Mutation
Alteration of a DNA sequence
QTL: Quantitative Trait Loci
- Most traits are polygenic: many genes are involved in their expression
- Mapping QTLs: If inheritance of a genetic marker is assoc w inheritance of a partic trait, the marker must be linked to that trait
- Can ID genes that are assoc w partic traits
Mice & QTLs for Emotionality
- Mice don’t like being in open fields
- Monitored level of activity & defecation
- -Heritable & neg correlated
- Found certain levels of emotions = adaptive
- Higher anxiety mice survived longer in the field
DNA Microarray
- Array contains numerous copies of single-stranded DNA representing a gene
- -Collect mRNA from 2 samples
- Transcribe it into (more stable) cDNA
- -Mark each w fluorescent label & apply to array
- Binding = active gene
- -Red = treated = active
- -Green = untreated = active
- -Yellow = both = equally active
- -Black = both = inactive
Forager Bees Experiment
- Had hive w young colony
- Add old bees = old bees will become foragers
- -Because they’re used to being foragers
- Add young bees = young resident bees will become foragers
- -Because they’re more familiar w the hive
Phototaxis in Fruit Flies & Artificial Selection
- Phototaxis = attraction to light or dark
- Adult fruit flies entered maze & had choice b/w light & dark 16X
- Top 25 were trunked & bred: offspring then went into the mazes
- Phototaxis can be artificially selected for b/c the offspring did well
Relatedness
- Fraction of genes that are identical by descent
- -Inherited by common ancestor
Naked Mole Rats & Eusociality
Eusocial
- Reproductive division of labour
- Communal care of young
- Overlapping generations
Mole Rats
-High degree of relatedness: result of inbreeding
Phylogeny
- History = constructed through phylogenetic trees
- -All species = product of descent (w mods) from common ancestors
- -Shows speciation
- -Something more closely related = closer node
Evolution of Agriculture
- Insect agriculture = growing fungi on plant material & protecting their crop on undesired species
- Ie. Leaf Cutting Ants
- -Carry cut leaves back to nest
- -Put leaves in garden where fungi feed
- -Ants actively maintain this & use anti-biotic to suppress undesirable species
- From ancestors –> Agriculture
- -Ants & Termites = 1 common ancestor
- -Beetles = 9 common ancestors
-No reversal back to life w/o agriculture
Chemotaxis
-Successive comparison is used to sample environments & move from low –> higher conc
Successive Comparison
- Very simple; compare one location/ thing to a previous one and decide if it’s better or not
- -Ie. Chemotaxis in bacteria
Simultaneous Comparison
- Difficult; comparing 2+ stimuli to reach a conclusion
- -Ie. Estimating time differences of incoming aud stimuli b/w ears to determine location
Thermotaxis
- Directing locomotion up or down a temp grad
- -Ie. Movement of sperm in uterus
Innate Behaviour
- Behavioural pattern that appears in its fully fcntional form the first time it’s performed
- Genetics behind it, environmental onset, automatic
- Sufficient when there’s strong assoc over many gens b/w cue & environmental feature
Birds & Nest Building
- Innate
- Birds knows what material to use, where to get it, & how to build its specific nest
- Better nest = +females = +fitness
Damselflies & Pike Experiment; Innate & Learnt Behaviour
- 3 Tanks
- -Pike ate Minnows = antipred behav
- -Pike ate Damselflies = antipred behav
- -Pike ate Mealworms (damselflies aren’t familiar w mealworms!) = no antipred behav
- Placed same damselflies in tanks w only Pike at Mealworm scent
- -Damselflies from orig Minnows & Damselflies tank = learnt assoc w the scent of pikes & exhibited antipred behav
- –Damselflies from mealworm group didn’t learn assoc
Geese & Egg Rolling
- Precise egg discrimination hasn’t been selected for in geese
- Is an example of evolution over time
Gull Chicks & Begging Behaviour
- Innate to peck @ long & red stimuli
- Genetically, certain devel of neurons that have innate perception of response
What are the Two Major Mechanisms that can change behaviour over time?
EVOLUTION & LEARNING
Fruit Flies; Artificial Selection on Learning
- Fruit flies avoid bitter (quinine) & lay there eggs somewhere else
- Had pineapple + Q & orange in odd gens
- Had orange + Q in even gens
- -^ To avoid evolution of a smell + Q
- Moderate learning abilities
- Knew where to lay their eggs
Mice & CREB
- CREB = involved in mem performance
- Treated mice w drug that increases CREB activity
- Compared them to control & training trials
- CREB increased mem activity right away
Aplysia
-Simple nervous system & gill withdrawl reflex that has been used to study learning & memory
Is Mass or Space Training More Effective?
-Spaced! Allows you to sleep on the information & retain more information
