• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Monday, January 30, 2023
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

UTA study: Brain evolution is linked to competition

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
October 20, 2022
in Science News
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

In response to a high-competition environment, Trinidadian killifish evolve larger brains, increasing their fitness and survival rates, according to a new study in Ecology Letters by biologists at The University of Texas at Arlington.

Matthew Walsh

Credit: The University of Texas at Arlington

In response to a high-competition environment, Trinidadian killifish evolve larger brains, increasing their fitness and survival rates, according to a new study in Ecology Letters by biologists at The University of Texas at Arlington.

The study, led by biology Professor Matthew Walsh and Kaitlyn Howell (’22 PhD, Biology), examined the connection between brain size and fitness when killifish are found in their native habitats and when they are transplanted from sites with predators to high-competition sites that lack predators.

During a 30-day experiment near Arima, Trinidad, the researchers determined that when a fish is transplanted from a low- to a high-competition environment, there is a strong relationship between larger brain size and faster growth. That growth demonstrates increased ability to forage for food, giving killifish a greater chance at survival.

Furthermore, killifish from high-competition sites that remained in their native habitat for the duration of the experiment did not exhibit any change in brain size. The transplanted fish that persisted until the end of the experiment exhibited a much larger brain size than those fish that were not observed again.

“Scientists have known about large differences in vertebrate brain size for more than 100 years, and there are many hypotheses about why the vertebrate brain evolves,” Walsh said. “This study highlights the important role that competition may play.”

The study provides some of the first experimental evidence for which factors could be driving brain-size variation.

Howell said the experiment was prompted by the observation that killifish in sites without predators have larger brains than others.

“We knew there were differences in brain size between these two populations of fish, but we didn’t know why,” Howell said. “These results provide experimental support that larger brains can be adaptive and increase fitness in environments that are characterized by high population densities, low resources and intense competition.”



Journal

Ecology Letters

DOI

10.1111/ele.14133

Article Title

Transplant experiments demonstrate that larger brains are favoured in high-competition environments in Trinidadian killifish

Article Publication Date

20-Oct-2022

Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

Sandra Purdy

People with arthritis 20% less likely to be in work

January 30, 2023
FAIRY flying robot

A fairy-like robot flies by the power of wind and light

January 30, 2023

UK’s Overseas Territories at ongoing risk from wide range of invasive species

January 30, 2023

World-first guidelines created to help prevent heart complications in children during cancer treatment

January 29, 2023

POPULAR NEWS

  • Jean du Terrail, Senior Machine Learning Scientist at Owkin

    Nature Medicine publishes breakthrough Owkin research on the first ever use of federated learning to train deep learning models on multiple hospitals’ histopathology data

    64 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • First made-in-Singapore antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) approved to enter clinical trials

    58 shares
    Share 23 Tweet 15
  • Metal-free batteries raise hope for more sustainable and economical grids

    41 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • One-pot reaction creates versatile building block for bioactive molecules

    37 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

People with arthritis 20% less likely to be in work

A fairy-like robot flies by the power of wind and light

UK’s Overseas Territories at ongoing risk from wide range of invasive species

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 43 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In