Chapter 3-Development of Behavior Flashcards
Define: pheromone.
Chemicals used by animals to communicate with each other.
Describe the functions of:
A) queen mandibular pheromone
B) juvenile hormone
C) ethyl oleate
A) changes gene expression in worker bees, prevent development of ovaries in worker bees, workers spread pheromone
B) pertinent for transition from young nurse to old forager
C) older bees give younger bees ethyl oleate to slow the transition to foraging status
Why is the nature-or-nurture dichotomy false?
Environment affects gene expression and protein production. Ex. Honeybees (not just genetic)
At the same time certain amount of behavior is encoded in inheritable genes. Ex. Pre-coded learning( Not just environmental)
Define: learning.
A change in an animal’s behavior linked to an particular experience. Ex. Male thynnine wasps and orchids
Define: imprinting.
Young animal’s interactions, usually with parents, leads to it learning such things as what constitutes an appropriate sexual partner. Ex. Great tits and blue tits (not affected so much)
What are the two ways to explore development of features of living things?
1) look at sequence of events and how an ancestral trait has been altered to become the modern attribute. (ex. Homeobox)
2) examine adaptive significance of a developmental trait rather than on its origin and historical modifications (allows natural selection analysis)
Why is it important that genomes exhibit considerable information redundancy?
It explains why one gene-environment product is not fatal/does not hinder acquisition of other traits. Ex. Normal looking animals despite being a knockout/developmental homeostasis
Define: developmental homeostasis.
The process that animals to develop more or less normally despite defective genes and deficient environments. It reduces variation around a mean value for a phenotype. Ex. Rhesus monkeys
What could have contributed to the development of symmetrical bodies?
Developmental homeostasis. Hypothesized that animals could respond to symmetrical mates because it shows they were able to overcome challenges to normal development. Important for some species but not others.
Define: polyphenism.
Two or more distinct alternative phenotypes coexist comfortably. Ex. Cannabilistic vs. scrawny tiger salamanders
Define: operant conditioning.
An animal learns to associate a voluntary action with the consequences that follow that action. Ex. Shock and a button
Translate “in garter snakes, there is a gene for eating banana slugs”
- a particular allele in snakes codes for a distinctive protein
- interaction between gene and environment induces protein to be made
- protein influences development or operation of the physiological mechanisms underlying the snake’s ability to recognize slug as food
Translate “the rat’s learned avoidance of rat poison is caused by its experience with the chemical”
(no phenotype can be purely environmental)
1) specific experience w/rat poison led to chemical changes in the rat’s body
2) changes eventually to chemical changes in rat’s brain cells
3) genetic activity is altered in some part of nervous system
4) response to poison is modified upon second encounter
List the adaptive features of behavioral development.
1) Developmental homeostasis
2) developmental switch
3) learning mechanisms that respond to particular environmental inputs
What leads to differences in behavior in individuals?
Difference in environment/genes leads to differences in development in individuals. This leads to differences in animal behavior
