Predation impacts brain allometry in female guppies ( Poecilia reticulata ).

Autor: Vega-Trejo R; Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg 18B, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden.; Department of Zoology, Edward Grey Institute, University of Oxford, OX1 3SZ Oxford, UK., Vila-Pouca C; Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg 18B, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden.; Department of Animal Sciences: Behavioural Ecology, Wageningen University & Research, 6708 Wageningen, WD Netherlands., Mitchell DJ; Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg 18B, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden., Kotrschal A; Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg 18B, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden.; Department of Animal Sciences: Behavioural Ecology, Wageningen University & Research, 6708 Wageningen, WD Netherlands.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Evolutionary ecology [Evol Ecol] 2022; Vol. 36 (6), pp. 1045-1059. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Jun 21.
DOI: 10.1007/s10682-022-10191-8
Abstrakt: Cognitive and sensory abilities are vital in affecting survival under predation risk, leading to selection on brain anatomy. However, how exactly predation and brain evolution are linked has not yet been resolved, as current empirical evidence is inconclusive. This may be due to predation pressure having different effects across life stages and/or due to confounding factors in ecological comparisons of predation pressure. Here, we used adult guppies ( Poecilia reticulata ) to experimentally test how direct predation during adulthood would impact the relative brain size and brain anatomy of surviving individuals to examine if predators selectively remove individuals with specific brain morphology. To this end, we compared fish surviving predation to control fish, which were exposed to visual and olfactory predator cues but could not be predated on. We found that predation impacted the relative size of female brains. However, this effect was dependent on body size, as larger female survivors showed relatively larger brains, while smaller survivors showed relatively smaller brains when compared to control females. We found no differences in male relative brain size between survivors and controls, nor for any specific relative brain region sizes for either sex. Our results corroborate the important, yet complex, role of predation as an important driver of variation in brain size.
Competing Interests: Conflict of interestWe declare we have no conflict of interest.
(© The Author(s) 2022, corrected publication 2022.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: