|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| X |
Recent journal articles relevant to lectures:Here I will post references and summaries for recent articles in several scientific journals about topics we are covering in the course. The intent is to show you how relevant and "up-to-date" some of these issues are. Things are always changing. From 1998:Nature vs. Nurture -- The environment during development:I mentioned that the influences of the maternal environment (egg, uterus, parental feeding and care) can have strong effects on behavior -- a hot area of research. Here is an article from 17 September 1998 that show that cross-fostered sheep and goats will acquire mating preferences from the "parents" who raised them. You are familiar with the experimental approach (remember the Galas and your ideas for oystercatchers) but the results may surprise you. Male sheep raised by goat "mothers" associate with prefer female goats to female sheep when they are adult. The same for male goats raised by sheep "mothers" -- they favor sheep females. The effect is not as strong for female preferences and those preferences are reversed in a couple of years. This worked even when twins were cross-fostered! The authors do manage to get Freud into their article as well as some adaptive hypotheses for why maternal effects on social and mating preferences should be so strong. But why males? A possible answer ties into a major point of the Holekamp and Sherman paper you read on ground squirrels -- which sex normally disperses in mammals... K M Kendrick, M R Hinton, K Atkins, M A Haupt & J D Skinner . 1998. Mothers determine sexual preferences. Nature 395: 229-230
Genetic basis in detail -- small changes, big effects:Here is one, from 24 September 1998, that links fairly complex behavioral differences among individuals to a single protein, suggesting a small genetic difference as a basis for the behavioral differences ... "BEHAVIOURAL GENETICS Alison Mitchell . 1998. Worming out social secrets. Nature 395: 327 Whereas some nematode worms are solitary, preferring to feed alone, others feed together in large clumps. This behavioral difference has now been pinned down to just one protein, NPR-1, a homologue of human neuropeptide-Y receptors. What's more, solitary and sociable worms differ by a single amino acid in this protein. " Return to Top |
| X |
Home Prospectus Sections Journals Web Discuss Schedule News Handouts Exams Links |
