Development of Behavior

Zool-705
Chapter 3: Animal Behavior
By John Alcock
 The Development of Behavior
• Concept: development is an interactive
process.
• Genetic information interacts with
changing internal and external
environments.
• This assembles an organism, as a whole,
with special properties and abilities.
 The Interactive Theory of
Development
• Development is an interactive process in which
genes are turned on or off by appropriate
signals.
• Such signals are derived from external
environment.
• Genes are turned on….chemical reactions within
cells are changed…..eventually proximate
mechanisms are modified
• This brings changes in behavior e.g.,
honeybees’ behavior keeps changing over the
course of their lives.
 The Interactive Theory of
Development
• No trait is “genetic” as opposed to
“environmental”
• Nor any trait is determined by environment
alone without genetic information.
• So, no so-called genetically determined
traits (nature) or so-called environmentally
determined (nurture).
• How then we look at the instincts and
learning?
Honeybees Do Fascinating Things-
An example of Interactive Theory of
Development
• Many insects depend heavily on simple innate
behaviors.
• But some like honeybees show fascinating behaviors.
• Worker honeybees spend lives in helping hivemates.
• Take care of the eggs and larvae of their queen.
• Construct honeycomb
• Regulate hive temperature
• Defend colony against parasites and predators
• Collect pollen and nectar for the colony to survive and
grow
• Workers go through a regular progression of
occupations
 The Interactive Theory of
Development
• Honeybees when they emerge as adults
first work at cleansing cells then as they
age they shift to other tasks.

• Eventually at about age 3 weeks they

begin foraging outside the hive.
 What causes this?
• As the bee goes through these changes in
behavior it appears that predictable
changes in the genes (being actively
expressed) occur.

• Microarray technology makes it possible to

scan for activity levels of many genes by
detecting mRNA made when genes are
turned on.
 Development of Behavior
• Comparisons of arrays (detecting and
comparing mRNAs of various genes) of
nurse and forager bees shows substantial
differences in genes turned on at each
stage.
 (YN= young nurses, OF = older foragers,)
(Manipulated)

F/N= activity score of a gene in foragers divided by that of nurses

Gene activity varies in the brains of
nurse bees and foragers
• Figure showed individual records of bees
from typical and manipulated colonies
• 17 genes show the largest difference in
activity between the brains of nurses and
foragers.
• Also, the 17 genes are highly similar to
genes found in fruit flies
 Development of Behavior
• Transition to worker role appears to be strongly
influenced by level of a hormone called juvenile
hormone, which is produced by a gene.

• The juvenile hormone gene turns on apparently

in response to activity of other genes during 1st
three weeks of adulthood , but can also be
turned on in response to conditions in the hive
(???).
 Development of Behavior
• If colonies are artificially made up of only young
workers some become foragers much sooner
and others remain as nurse bees much longer.
• It may be the social encounters that stimulate
these changes.

• Lack of encounters with older foragers appears

to hasten nurse bees’ transition to forager role.
(Hypothesis ???)
 Social Environment and Task
Specialization
• In experimental colonies composed
exclusively of young workers (residents)
• Adding older bees to hives (that contain
only young bees) reduces the number of
young bees that become foragers.
• In contrast, adding more young bees does
not slow rate at which young bees become
foragers.
 Development of Behavior
• Inhibiting agent believed to be a fatty acid
compound called ethyl oleate that foragers
manufacture and store in their crop.

• When foragers transfer food to nurse bees

they transfer the chemical, which slows
the nurses’ transition to foragers.
 DNA is both inherited and
environmentally responsive

• In honeybees, therefore, sequence of

behavioral changes is determined by
continuous interactions between genes
and both chemical and social
environments.
 Nature vs Nurture Debate
• Nature: genetic contribution to behavior.

• Nurture: environmental contribution to

shaping behavior.

• There is a false dichotomy in popular

discussions in which traits are considered
to be genetically or environmentally
determined.
 Nature vs Nurture Debate
• In reality, all traits are the product of
gene-environment interactions.

• As we saw in the case of honeybees there

is considerable gene-environment
interaction.
 Nature vs Nurture Debate
• Environmental or genetic differences
among individuals can lead to differences
in development and finally differences in
behavior.
• So, behavioral development requires both
genes and environment.
Behavioral Development Requires
Both Genes and Environment
• Learned behaviors apparently seem to be
determined by the environment alone.
• But development of ability to learn is
attributed to DNA.
• Learning takes place within brain whose
properties are shaped by gene-
environment interactions.