In: Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, 2007, vol. 80, no. 4, p. 399-405
In order to address the nature of genetic variation in learning performance, we investigated the response to classical olfactory conditioning in "high-learning" Drosophila melanogaster lines previously subject to selection for the ability to learn an association between the flavor of an oviposition medium and bitter taste. In a T-maze choice test, the seven high-learning lines were better at...
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In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2007, vol. 104, no. 32, p. 13051-13055
Knowing which genes contribute to natural variation in learning and memory would help us understand how differences in these cognitive traits evolve among populations and species. We show that a natural polymorphism at the foraging (for) locus, which encodes a cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG), affects associative olfactory learning in Drosophila melanogaster. In an assay...
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In: Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2006, vol. 19, no. 4, p. 1359-1363
Learning ability and immunity to parasites are linked at the physiological level in several insect species. The aim of this work was to investigate the relationship between learning and immunity at an evolutionary level. We tested whether selection for improved learning ability in Drosophila melanogaster led to changes in parasitoid resistance as a correlated response. Similarly, we assayed...
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In: Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2006, vol. 19, no. 4, p. 1265-1274
To what extent is adaptive evolution over short timescales repeatable? To address this question, we studied the performance of crosses between replicate Drosophila melanogaster lines previously subject to selection for improved learning response in the context of oviposition substrate choice. Of the 10 pairwise F1 crosses among the five selection lines, four performed in the original learning...
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In: Science, 2005, vol. 308, no. 5725, p. 1148
Two distinct forms of consolidated associative memory are known in Drosophila: long- term memory and so-called anesthesia-resistant memory. Long-term memory is more stable, but unlike anesthesia-resistant memory, its formation requires protein synthesis. We show that flies induced to form long-term memory become more susceptible to extreme stress (such as desiccation). In contrast, induction...
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In: Animal Behaviour, 2004, vol. 68, p. 589-598
Although the fitness benefits of learning are well understood, we know little about its costs; yet both are essential to understand the evolution of animal learning. We tested the hypothesis that learning has an operating cost, such that an animal repeatedly forced to use its learning ability would show a reduction in some fitness component(s), relative to an animal of the same genotype that does...
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In: Evolution, 2004, vol. 58, no. 4, p. 757-767
Learning is thought to be adaptive in variable environments, whereas constant, predictable environments are supposed to favor unconditional, genetically fixed responses. A dichotomous view of behavior as either learned or innate ignores a potential evolutionary interaction between the learned and innate components of a behavioral response. We addressed this interaction in the context of...
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Thèse de doctorat : Université de Fribourg : 2003 ; 1403.
La plupart des animaux, invertébrés inclus, ont la capacité de modifier leur comportement à la suite d'expériences, ils sont capables d'apprendre. Leur capacité d'apprentissage est elle-même un produit de l'évolution et le degré de modification d'un comportement par l'apprentissage varie selon les espèces et selon le comportement considéré. Pour un biologiste de l'évolution ceci...
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