A fitness cost of learning ability in Drosophila melanogaster.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_D48692EF1BFB
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
A fitness cost of learning ability in Drosophila melanogaster.
Journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B Biological Sciences
Author(s)
Mery F., Kawecki T.J.
ISSN
0962-8452[print]
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2003
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
270
Number
1532
Pages
2465-2469
Language
english
Abstract
Maintenance of substantial genetic variation for learning ability in many animal populations suggests that learning ability has fitness costs, but there is little empirical evidence for them. In this paper, we demonstrate an evolutionary trade-off between learning ability and competitive ability in Drosophila melanogaster. We show that the evolution of an improved learning ability in replicated experimental fly populations has been consistently associated with a decline of larval competitive ability, compared with replicated control populations. The competitive ability was not affected by crossing of the replicate populations within each selection regime, excluding differential inbreeding as a potential confounding factor. Our results provide evidence for a constitutive fitness cost of learning ability, i.e. one that is paid irrespective of whether or not the learning ability is actually used.
Keywords
Animals, Competitive Behavior/physiology, Crosses, Genetic, Drosophila melanogaster/physiology, Evolution, Genetics, Population, Larva/physiology, Learning/physiology, Switzerland
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
19/11/2007 11:49
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:54
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