Behavioral and Developmental Plasticity of Buoyancy in the Longnose, Rhinichthys cataractae, and Blacknose, R. atratulus (Cyprinidae) Dace

1974 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Gee
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Adult Size ◽  
Volume Weight ◽  
Rhinichthys Cataractae ◽  
Negative Buoyancy

The hypothesis that developmental plasticity contributes to variation in swimbladder length, volume, weight of tissue, and buoyancy was examined in two species of dace. At both maximum and minimum buoyancy attained dace reared in still water to adult size possessed swimbladders of a greater length, volume, and weight of tissue than those reared in current. Such developmental plasticity affected the range over which buoyancy could be adjusted (behavioral plasticity). Those reared in still water attained a more buoyant condition than those reared in current while the latter attained a greater degree of negative buoyancy.

scholarly journals Environmental specificity in Drosophila-bacteria symbiosis affects host developmental plasticity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Guilhot ◽  
Antoine Rombaut ◽  
Anne Xuéreb ◽  
Kate Howell ◽  
Simon Fellous
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Laboratory Strain ◽  
Joint Analysis ◽  
Adult Size ◽  
Bacterial Strains ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Symbiotic Interactions ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Microbial Symbionts ◽  
Host Evolution

ABSTRACTEnvironmentally acquired microbial symbionts could contribute to host adaptation to local conditions like vertically transmitted symbionts do. This scenario necessitates symbionts to have different effects in different environments. We investigated this idea in Drosophila melanogaster, a species which communities of bacterial symbionts vary greatly among environments. We isolated four bacterial strains isolated from the feces of a D. melanogaster laboratory strain and tested their effects in two conditions: the ancestral environment (i.e. the laboratory medium) and a new environment (i.e. fresh fruit with live yeast). All bacterial effects on larval and adult traits differed among environments, ranging from very beneficial to marginally deleterious. The joint analysis of larval development speed and adult size further shows bacteria affected developmental plasticity more than resource acquisition. This effect was largely driven by the contrasted effects of the bacteria in each environment. Our study illustrates that understanding D. melanogaster symbiotic interactions in the wild will necessitate working in ecologically realistic conditions. Besides, context-dependent effects of symbionts, and their influence on host developmental plasticity, shed light on how environmentally acquired symbionts may contribute to host evolution.

scholarly journals Developmental plasticity of texture discrimination following early vision loss in the marsupial Monodelphis domestica

2021 ◽  
Vol 224 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepa L. Ramamurthy ◽  
Heather K. Dodson ◽  
Leah A. Krubitzer
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Vision Loss ◽  
Functional Organization ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Monodelphis Domestica ◽  
Behavioral Strategies ◽  
Discrimination Accuracy ◽  
Texture Discrimination ◽  
Tactile Cues

ABSTRACT Behavioral strategies that depend on sensory information are not immutable; rather they can be shaped by the specific sensory context in which animals develop. This behavioral plasticity depends on the remarkable capacity of the brain to reorganize in response to alterations in the sensory environment, particularly when changes in sensory input occur at an early age. To study this phenomenon, we utilize the short-tailed opossum, a marsupial that has been a valuable animal model to study developmental plasticity due to the extremely immature state of its nervous system at birth. Previous studies in opossums have demonstrated that removal of retinal inputs early in development results in profound alterations to cortical connectivity and functional organization of visual and somatosensory cortex; however, behavioral consequences of this plasticity are not well understood. We trained early blind and sighted control opossums to perform a two-alternative forced choice texture discrimination task. Whisker trimming caused an acute deficit in discrimination accuracy for both groups, indicating the use of a primarily whisker-based strategy to guide choices based on tactile cues. Mystacial whiskers were important for performance in both groups; however, genal whiskers only contributed to behavioral performance in early blind animals. Early blind opossums significantly outperformed their sighted counterparts in discrimination accuracy, with discrimination thresholds that were lower by ∼75 μm. Our results support behavioral compensation following early blindness using tactile inputs, especially the whisker system.

scholarly journals Insects Provide Unique Systems to Investigate How Early-Life Experience Alters the Brain and Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca R. Westwick ◽  
Clare C. Rittschof
Keyword(s):  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Insect Behavior ◽  
Extensive Study ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Wide Range

Early-life experiences have strong and long-lasting consequences for behavior in a surprising diversity of animals. Determining which environmental inputs cause behavioral change, how this information becomes neurobiologically encoded, and the functional consequences of these changes remain fundamental puzzles relevant to diverse fields from evolutionary biology to the health sciences. Here we explore how insects provide unique opportunities for comparative study of developmental behavioral plasticity. Insects have sophisticated behavior and cognitive abilities, and they are frequently studied in their natural environments, which provides an ecological and adaptive perspective that is often more limited in lab-based vertebrate models. A range of cues, from relatively simple cues like temperature to complex social information, influence insect behavior. This variety provides experimentally tractable opportunities to study diverse neural plasticity mechanisms. Insects also have a wide range of neurodevelopmental trajectories while sharing many developmental plasticity mechanisms with vertebrates. In addition, some insects retain only subsets of their juvenile neuronal population in adulthood, narrowing the targets for detailed study of cellular plasticity mechanisms. Insects and vertebrates share many of the same knowledge gaps pertaining to developmental behavioral plasticity. Combined with the extensive study of insect behavior under natural conditions and their experimental tractability, insect systems may be uniquely qualified to address some of the biggest unanswered questions in this field.

Evolution and Development of Individual Behavioral Variation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate L. Laskowski ◽  
Alison M. Bell ◽  
Judy Stamps
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Behavior Changes ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Behavioral Variation ◽  
Evolution And Development ◽  
Internal And External Factors

What makes individuals unique? The answer to this question lies in understanding why and how individuals respond to numerous internal and external factors that they experience over their lifetimes. This fundamental question lies at the heart of the study of human and animal behavior and is best addressed by integrating both proximate and ultimate perspectives. From a proximate perspective, we need to understand the molecular, hormonal, and physiological pathways involved in enacting behavioral changes within individuals. From an ultimate perspective, we need to understand when and why behavior changes in response to different internal and external factors and whether such changes are adaptive, a result of constraints, or pathological. Research on this topic draws links across several fields including developmental and abnormal psychology, personality in humans and animals, developmental plasticity, and parental effects. The development of individual behavioral variation encompasses many different processes because there are so many ways that behavior can vary within and across individuals. This article considers behavioral variation in both of these respects, that is, within-individual plasticity and among-individual differences. Within an individual, behavioral plasticity describes the way in which behavior can change across the lifespan as a result of changes in internal factors such as maturational state, or as a result of salient experiences. Among individuals, differences in average behavior can be a result of individual differences in internal factors, such as genetic variation, variation in their experiences, and variation in how they respond to the same experiences. Traditionally, students of behavioral variation in humans and animals focused on describing the mean levels of behavior expressed by groups of individuals as a function of changes in age or in response to specific experiences. More recently evolutionary and behavioral ecologists have become interested in patterns of within-individual plasticity and among-individual differences in behavior, and the factors that contribute to their development, which is the focus of this review here.

scholarly journals Developmental plasticity of texture discrimination following early vision loss in the marsupial Monodelphis domestica

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepa L. Ramamurthy ◽  
Heather K. Dodson ◽  
Leah A. Krubitzer
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Vision Loss ◽  
Functional Organization ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Monodelphis Domestica ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Behavioral Strategies ◽  
Discrimination Accuracy ◽  
Texture Discrimination

ABSTRACTBehavioral strategies that depend on sensory information are not immutable; rather they can be shaped by the specific sensory context in which animals develop. This behavioral plasticity depends on the remarkable capacity for the brain to reorganize in response to alterations in the sensory environment, particularly when changes in sensory input occur at an early age. To study this phenomenon, we utilize the short-tailed opossum, a marsupial that has been a valuable animal model to study developmental plasticity due to the extremely immature state of its nervous system at birth. Previous studies in opossums have demonstrated that removal of retinal inputs early in development results in profound alterations to cortical connectivity and functional organization of visual and somatosensory cortex; however, behavioral consequences of this plasticity are not well understood. We trained early blind (EB) and sighted control (SC) opossums to perform a two-alternative forced choice texture discrimination task. Whisker trimming caused an acute deficit in discrimination accuracy for both EB and SC animals indicating that they primarily used a whisker-based strategy to guide choices based on tactile cues – though performance recovered in days, suggesting a shift to the use of other body parts when whiskers were absent. Mystacial whiskers were important for performance in both groups; however, genal whiskers only contributed to performance in EB animals. EB opossums significantly outperformed SC opossums in discrimination accuracy, being more sensitive to textural differences by ~75 μm smaller. Our results support behavioral compensation following early blindness using tactile inputs, especially the whisker system.

scholarly journals The partitioning of symbionts effects on host resource acquisition and developmental plasticity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Guilhot ◽  
Anne Xuéreb ◽  
Simon Fellous
Keyword(s):  
Larval Development ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Resource Acquisition ◽  
Adult Size ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Symbiosis Evolution ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Host Resource ◽  
New Framework

AbstractMany symbionts provide nutrients to their host and/or affect its phenotypic plasticity. Such symbiont effects on host resource acquisition and allocation are often simultaneous and difficult to disentangle. Here we partitioned symbiont effects on host resource acquisition and allocation using a new framework based on the analysis of a well-established trade-off between host fitness components. This framework was used to analyze the effect of symbiotic yeast on the larval development of Drosophila larvae in field-realistic conditions. The screening of eighteen yeast fresh isolates showed they had similar effects on the resource acquisition in Drosophila melanogaster, D. simulans and D. suzukii but species-specific effects on resource allocation between either larval development speed or adult size. These differences shed light on the ecology of Drosophila flies and illustrate why distinguishing between these qualitatively different effects of microorganisms on hosts is essential to understand and predict symbiosis evolution.

scholarly journals Plasticity as panacea? Nerves, hormones, and the currencies of trade-offs

2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Bastiaans ◽  
Elizabeth Bastiaans
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Behavioral Traits ◽  
Short Term Plasticity ◽  
Trade Offs

Abstract Phenotypic plasticity is nearly universal among organisms, and evidence indicates that plasticity can exhibit additive genetic variation and respond to selection. These findings have important implications for our understanding of how plasticity may be constrained and how its mechanistic structure may affect its evolution. Many life history trade-offs may be conceptualized as plastic traits, with individuals varying in their position along trade-off axes due to genetic differences, developmental plasticity, or short-term plasticity occurring throughout an individual’s lifetime. Behavioral plasticity is key to understanding when organisms are likely to encounter trade-offs, whether those trade-offs can be mitigated, and how the trade-offs affect the ecology and evolution of populations. In this review, we discuss hormonal and neural mechanisms that may influence how plastic behavioral traits are expressed and evolve. We also outline a classification of life history trade-offs and their mechanistic bases and discuss the currencies most likely to mediate each category of trade-off and how they are tied to the mechanisms by which animals express their behaviors.

scholarly journals Environmental specificity and evolution in Drosophila-bacteria symbiosis

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Guilhot ◽  
Antoine Rombaut ◽  
Anne Xuéreb ◽  
Kate Howell ◽  
Simon Fellous
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Host Adaptation ◽  
Resource Acquisition ◽  
Joint Analysis ◽  
Adult Size ◽  
Bacterial Symbionts ◽  
Bacterial Strains ◽  
Microbial Symbionts ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Host Evolution

AbstractEnvironmentally acquired microbial symbionts could contribute to host adaptation to local adaptation like vertically transmitted symbionts do. This scenario necessitates symbionts to have different effects in different environments. In Drosophila melanogaster, communities of extracellular bacterial symbionts vary largely among environments, which could be due to variable effects on phenotype. We investigated this idea with four bacterial strains isolated from the feces of a D. melanogaster lab strain, and tested their effects in two environments: the environment of origin (i.e. the laboratory medium) and a new one (i.e. fresh fruit with live yeast). All bacterial effects on larval and adult traits differed among environments, ranging from very beneficial to marginally deleterious. The joint analysis of larval development speed and adult size further suggests bacteria would affect developmental plasticity more than resource acquisition in males. The context-dependent effects of bacteria we observed, and its underlying mechanisms, sheds light on how environmentally acquired symbionts may contribute to host evolution.

BIRTH WEIGHT AND ADULTHOOD DISEASE AND THE CONTROVERSIES

2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
DIW PHILLIPS
Keyword(s):  
Birth Weight ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Epigenetic Modification ◽  
Adult Size ◽  
Fetal Origins ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Adult Disease ◽  
The Metabolic Syndrome ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

A large number of studies show that low birth weight is associated with cardiovascular disease and its risk factors including raised blood pressure, glucose intolerance and the metabolic syndrome. These findings have formed the basis for the ‘fetal origins hypothesis’. This suggests that the operation of adverse influences during intrauterine life leads to permanent alterations in fetal structure and physiology which predispose to adult disease. The process is known as developmental plasticity or programming and is strongly supported by studies in experimental animals. Ongoing research is providing important insights in to the underlying mechanisms. It is likely that adverse environmental factors during pregnancy are important, and that these include suboptimal nutrition of the mother. The long-term programming effects may be transduced by alterations in the set-point of key hormonal axes, especially the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and recent evidence suggests that epigenetic modification of gene expression may be a key factor. Importantly, this has the potential to produce transgenerational effects.The hypothesis has not remained unchallenged and a wide variety of criticisms have been put forward. These include accusations that the associations are weak and overestimated due to publication bias, that there are many inconsistencies between studies, that the associations are confounded by lifestyle factors, and that there has been inappropriate adjustment for adult size. Finally many studies report that the findings in singletons do not seem to be replicated in twins. While many of these issues have been resolved, some continue to form the basis of a lively dialogue and ongoing research. Nevertheless the research findings have important implications for clinical obstetric practice and maternal-fetal medicine.

Persistence of giants: population dynamics of the limpet Scutellastra laticostata on rocky shores in Western Australia

2020 ◽  
Vol 646 ◽  
pp. 79-92
Author(s):  
RE Scheibling ◽  
R Black
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
Size Structure ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Maximum Size ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Adult Survival ◽  
Rocky Shores ◽  
Adult Size ◽  
Decadal Time Scale

Population dynamics and life history traits of the ‘giant’ limpet Scutellastra laticostata on intertidal limestone platforms at Rottnest Island, Western Australia, were recorded by interannual (January/February) monitoring of limpet density and size structure, and relocation of marked individuals, at 3 locations over periods of 13-16 yr between 1993 and 2020. Limpet densities ranged from 4 to 9 ind. m-2 on wave-swept seaward margins of platforms at 2 locations and on a rocky notch at the landward margin of the platform at a third. Juvenile recruits (25-55 mm shell length) were present each year, usually at low densities (<1 m-2), but localized pulses of recruitment occurred in some years. Annual survival rates of marked limpets varied among sites and cohorts, ranging from 0.42 yr-1 at the notch to 0.79 and 0.87 yr-1 on the platforms. A mass mortality of limpets on the platforms occurred in 2003, likely mediated by thermal stress during daytime low tides, coincident with high air temperatures and calm seas. Juveniles grew rapidly to adult size within 2 yr. Asymptotic size (L∞, von Bertalanffy growth model) ranged from 89 to 97 mm, and maximum size from 100 to 113 mm, on platforms. Growth rate and maximum size were lower on the notch. Our empirical observations and simulation models suggest that these populations are relatively stable on a decadal time scale. The frequency and magnitude of recruitment pulses and high rate of adult survival provide considerable inertia, enabling persistence of these populations in the face of sporadic climatic extremes.

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