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Learning ability and longevity: a symmetrical evolutionary trade-off in Drosophila

  • Burger, Joep M. S. Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland - Section of Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Kolss, Munjong University of Bielefeld, Department of Evolutionary Biology, Germany - Section of Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Pont, Juliette Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland - Section of Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Kawecki, Tadeusz J. Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland - Section of Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
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    2008
Published in:
  • Evolution. - 2008, vol. 62, no. 6, p. 1294–1304
Age-related memory impairment
antagonistic pleiotropy
cognitive senescence
correlated response to selection
cost of learning
memory
English Learning ability can be substantially improved by artificial selection in animals ranging from Drosophila to rats. Thus these species have not used their evolutionary potential with respect to learning ability, despite intuitively expected and experimentally demonstrated adaptive advantages of learning. This suggests that learning is costly, but this notion has rarely been tested. Here we report correlated responses of life-history traits to selection for improved learning in Drosophila melanogaster. Replicate populations selected for improved learning lived on average 15% shorter than the corresponding unselected control populations. They also showed a minor reduction in fecundity late in life and possibly a minor increase in dry adult mass. Selection for improved learning had no effect on egg-to-adult viability, development rate, or desiccation resistance. Because shortened longevity was the strongest correlated response to selection for improved learning, we also measured learning ability in another set of replicate populations that had been selected for extended longevity. In a classical olfactory conditioning assay, these long-lived flies showed an almost 40% reduction in learning ability early in life. This effect disappeared with age. Our results suggest a symmetrical evolutionary trade-off between learning ability and longevity in Drosophila.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Département de Biologie
Language
  • English
Classification
Biological sciences
License
License undefined
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Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/300722
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