Developmental Processes

1
Developmental Processes

• Genome X Environment Interaction Phenotype
• Canalization Developmental options
• Environmental events turn-on genes

2
Bee Development

• Cleaning Cells
• Feed Bee Larvae
• Feed Fellow Workers
• Become a Forager

3
(No Transcript)
4
Phases of Bee Development
5
Factors accounting for Bee Development

• Microarray technology Measures messenger RNA
• Different RNA for nursing bees and foraging bees

6
Change in Activated DNA

• Juvenile Hormone Low in young bees, High in
  Foragers
• Ethyl Oleate High in foragers, stored in their
  crop, passed along to younger bees at feeding
  time. Inhibits transition to become a forager.

7
Experiments

• Adding older bees inhibits young bees developing
  into foragers
• Forming a colony of younger bees hurries the
  transition to forager
• Removing the corpora allata (producer of juvenile
  hormone) prevents transition to forager

8
Experimental Results
9
Learning in Early Development

• Imprinting Learning who is your parent
• Imprinting Learning which is your species
• Critical Period
• Why not instincts?

10
(No Transcript)
11
Mechanisms of Kin Recognition

• Location Feed the nest
• Allows cross-fostering experiments
• Allows parasitic species such as cowbirds

12
Mechanisms of Kin Recognition

• Familiarity Nest mates are familiar
• Wasps raised in same nest smell alike

13
Mechanisms of Kin Recognition

• Phenotypic matching
• Learn what I smell like
• Closer the match, closer the relationship

14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
Why Kin Recognition?

• Help relatives inclusive fitness
• Avoid inbreeding

17
Spatial Learning

• Modularity of mind
• Laboratory rats and the 8 arm radial maze
• Win Shift strategy
• Memory for location for several hours

18
Food Caching Birds

• Black-capped chickadees
• Store food in holes on poles, 4 or 5 of a
  possible 72
• Recover food 24 hours later

19
(No Transcript)
20
Food Caching Birds

• Clayton Dickinson-episodic memory in scrub jays
• Store meal worms and seeds in different places
• Recover 6 hours later or 72 hours later
• Remember what, where, and when

21
Food Caching Birds

• Clarks nutcracker lives at high altitudes
• Caches nuts in the fall
• Recovers nuts in winter and spring
• Over 30,000 seeds in over 2,500 locations
• In the lab recovery is about 80 accurate after
  one week

22
(No Transcript)
23
Is Spatial Memory Special?

• Comparative method Closely related species,
  differ in ecology
• Clarks nutcracker, Pinyon jay, Mexican jay, and
  Scrub jay, highest to lowest altitude
• Test for spatial memory or memory for color of an
  object

24
(No Transcript)
25
(No Transcript)
26
Behavior Genetics

• Genetically determined vs. heritable trait
• Two eyes vs. blue eyes
• Single gene vs. polygenetic traits
• Knock-out genes
• Twin and relatedness studies
• Selective breeding

27
Single Gene Effects

• Alter the fosB gene in female mouse
• She is normal, except she doesnt huddle with her
  pups

28
Single Gene Effects

• Drosophila melanogaster, or the common fruit fly
  larvae
• Placed on food dish they show either sitter or
  rover behavior
• Breed for one trait, then cross breed and breed
  again
• AAxaaAa, Aa, Aa, Aa (F1), breed again, AaxAaAA,
  Aa, Aa, aa (F2)

29
(No Transcript)
30
(No Transcript)
31
Polygenetic Effects

• IQ as a heritable trait correlations between
  individuals
• Monozygotic twins (identical) vs. dizygotic twins
  (fraternal)
• Biological parents vs. adoptive parents

32
(No Transcript)
33
Selective Breeding

• Quantitative variation in a trait
• Breed high to high and low to low
• Across generation change if heritable
• Mice bred for amount of nesting material

34
(No Transcript)
35
Selective Breeding Domestication

• Dogs have been associated with humans for at
  least 15,000 years
• Dogs that understand humans would be more
  successful
• Michael Tomasello experiments comparing chimp and
  dog

36
Hidden Object Test

• Food hidden in container
• Point at correct container, dog 90 correct,
  chimp 58 correct (social communication)
• Shake the two containers (food rattles), dog
  60, chimp 75 (Causal inference)

37
Learned Behavior

• Operant conditioning B. F. Skinner and rats
  learning to press a bar
• Classical conditioning Ivan Pavlov and dogs
  learning to salivate to a bell
• Social Learning Albert Bandura and children
  learning to be aggressive after watching
  aggression

38
(No Transcript)
39
Is Learning Specialized?

• Behaviorism of the last century
• All things as easy to learn as another
• Skinner thought the lever press was just a matter
  of convenience
• Misbehavior of organisms (Breland and Breland)
  raccoon washed coin rather than depositing it

40
Taste Aversion Learning

• Garcia used a novel taste or a sound as a
  conditioned stimulus and it was followed by
  either illness or foot shock
• Learned two of the four possible combinations

41
Preparedness

• Nervous system is tuned to learn about some
  things, and to not learn about others
• Language in humans is a highly prepared form of
  learning
• Fear of snakes is highly prepared in primates
• Spatial memory in corvids is highly prepared

42
When Is Preparedness Advantageous?

• A highly prepared taste aversion learning
  mechanism is needed a generalist feeder
• A highly prepared taste aversion learning
  mechanism would not be an advantage for a feeding
  specialist, and may be a disadvantage
• Insectivorous bats are generalists, vampire bats
  are specialists (blood)

43
(No Transcript)
44
The Developmental Environment

• Developmental Homeostasis and its disruption
• Harlows rhesus monkeys raised on surrogate
  mothers terry cloth or wire with food
• Prefer terry cloth when threatened

45
(No Transcript)
46
Social Isolation in Monkeys

• Raised with mom, but no other similar age monkeys
  abnormal development
• Given just 15 minutes of time together with 3
  other peers, and development was fairly normal
• Peer influence in human infant development is
  also thought to be more important than parents by
  some

47
(No Transcript)
48
Successful Development

• Lack of disease and other developmental issues
  tends to make the body more symmetric (an honest
  marker?)
• Choosing a more symmetric individual to mate with
  would be good
• Certainly true in some nonhuman species
• True in humans? Facial symmetry is reported to be
  attractive (fluctuating asymmetries)

49
(No Transcript)
50
Development Variation

• Canalization like a ball rolling down a hill
  that comes to a fork in the road
• Normal distribution of developmental traits like
  a river delta
• Polyphenism two distinct branches in the road
  bimodal distribution of traits

51
(No Transcript)
52
Tiger Salamanders

• Usually eat small insects
• Cannibal tiger salamanders develop when there are
  lots of them around who are not related and its
  is larger than most
• The cannibal takes advantage of a plentiful food
  source its own species

53
(No Transcript)
54
(No Transcript)