News: Zebrafish - Changing an Individual's Genes Can Alter the Group's Behavior

[mbsqw1d]

Zebrafish: Changing an Individual's Genes Can Alter the Group's Behavior

Zebrafish: Changing an Individual's Genes Can Alter the Group's Behavior

Research shows that targeted manipulation of individual genes in zebrafish larvae changes their behavioral responses to visual stimuli and affects the collective behavior of the animals.

www.technologynetworks.com

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Apparently, all newborn creatures, (ie before any learning has taken place), demonstrate a bell curve distribution of behaviours.
So, for example, in a population of newborn mice, some will be really bold and adventurous whilst others will be more cautious. The bulk of the population will be somewhere in the middle and both behaviour patterns have advantages and disadvantages for survival.

As these differences can be determined before any learning has taken place, then it's relatively safe to assume that individual genetics is responsible...so Mother Nature equips a population, any population, with enough variety to survive whatever's going on in the environment.

That zebrafish info is interesting and only available to us now, because of relatively recent breakthroughs in genetics and gene manipulation.

Of course, the implications of such a discovery, together with subsequent advances in gene manipulation, can be somewhat scarey, once you get to really think about it.

 

[Byron]

What I find most interesting here is the further proof that shoaling and related behaviours in fish are due to the genetic makeup of the species. This means they cannot be altered or changed by the aquarist [other than by genetic manipulation, obviously beyond most all of us]. I don't know how many times I have mentioned that the aggressive behaviour of species "x" is inherent to the species and must be recognized and accepted. We are not going to alter this just because we want "x" in with "y" species when knowledge tells us--or certainly should tell us--the two are incompatible.

 

[Sgooosh]

What I find most interesting here is the further proof that shoaling and related behaviours in fish are due to the genetic makeup of the species. This means they cannot be altered or changed by the aquarist [other than by genetic manipulation, obviously beyond most all of us]. I don't know how many times I have mentioned that the aggressive behaviour of species "x" is inherent to the species and must be recognized and accepted. We are not going to alter this just because we want "x" in with "y" species when knowledge tells us--or certainly should tell us--the two are incompatible.

alright ill admit it: i dont understand the bottom half of all of this LOL

could you explain?

 

[Byron]

alright ill admit it: i dont understand the bottom half of all of this LOL

could you explain?

Each species of freshwater fish has evolved to function in a very specific environment. All of this is programmed into the species genetic makeup, DNA. These are the factors that the species considers critical to its life. In shoaling species, it means that individual fish within the species "expect" to be in a group, for any of several reasons. The linked study here states this as a basic scientific fact. And it makes clear that the only way to change behaviours that occur within the genetic makeup is by genetic manipulation.

I posted a link to another study a few weeks ago, which established beyond doubt that the level of aggression in shoaling species was directly influenced by the numbers of the species.

To bring this to the aquarium level...the normal level of aggressive behaviour of a Tiger Barb is due to the genetic makeup of the species. If we fail to recognize what the fish considers essential, we are causing severe stress. And we are never going to change the fish's behaviours, but we can worsen them by ignoring the fish's expectation when it comes to numbers, or tank space, or other species in the tank. Or by putting the poor fish in a completely unnatural setting.

Dr. Paul Loiselle, an authority on cichlids, writes, "It is inhumane to deprive any animal of an element it regards as critical to its well-being, and totally naive to expect normal behavior in its absence." This is so crucial to success with aquarium fish that I have it in my signature block for every post.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

All that said, @Byron , Nature has imbibed those genes with a flexibility to allow species to adapt to changing conditions.
I once remarked that there's always one, referring to the odd fish that excepted itself from the main shoal. Within any shoal, there'll be fish that are just as comfortable out of the shoal than in it...and fish that are more comfortable within a shoal than out of it.
Never, ever assume that whatever characteristics the genetic make-up has established is static.