College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
J Exp Zool A Ecol Integr Physiol. 2022 Oct;337(8):802-811. doi: 10.1002/jez.2637. Epub 2022 Jun 26.
Innovative problem solving is thought to be a flexible trait that allows animals to adjust to changing or challenging environmental conditions. However, it is not known how problem solving develops during an animal's early life, or whether it may have a heritable component. We investigated whether maternal genetic and nongenetic effects influenced problem-solving ability in a native Australian rodent, the fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rat Melomys cervinipes. We measured direct (time spent grooming and huddling), indirect (time spent nesting), and total amount of maternal care received across pup development (postnatal Days 1-13). We measured problem solving in juveniles using matchbox tasks, and in mothers and adult offspring using six tasks of varying complexity (matchbox, cylinder, obstruction, pillar, tile, and lever tasks). We found no relationship between any maternal care measures and problem-solving abilities across multiple tests, suggesting limited (if any) maternal nongenetic effects. We also found that, as shown by low heritability estimates, problem solving only had a small heritable component in some tasks, but this was nonsignificant and requires further investigation. These results suggest that problem solving is unlikely to be constrained by maternal effects experienced during early development, and is, instead, more likely to be influenced by other factors (e.g., experience) later in an individual's lifetime.
创新问题解决被认为是一种灵活的特质，使动物能够适应不断变化或具有挑战性的环境条件。然而，目前尚不清楚动物在其早期生活中如何发展解决问题的能力，或者它是否可能具有遗传成分。我们调查了母系遗传和非遗传因素是否会影响原产于澳大利亚的小型有袋目哺乳动物——赤足纹背鼠（Melomys cervinipes）的解决问题的能力。我们测量了母鼠在幼崽发育过程中（出生后第 1 天至第 13 天）直接（梳理和蜷缩时间）、间接（筑巢时间）和总照顾量。我们使用匹配盒任务测量了幼鼠的解决问题能力，并使用 6 种不同复杂程度的任务（匹配盒、圆柱、障碍物、支柱、瓷砖和杠杆任务）测量了母鼠和成年后代的解决问题能力。我们发现，在多项测试中，任何母系照顾措施与解决问题的能力之间都没有关系，这表明母系非遗传因素的影响有限（如果有的话）。我们还发现，正如低遗传力估计所表明的那样，在某些任务中，解决问题的能力只有很小的遗传成分，但这并不显著，需要进一步研究。这些结果表明，解决问题的能力不太可能受到早期发育过程中母系经验的限制，而是更有可能受到个体生命后期其他因素（例如经验）的影响。
