Graduate School of Environmental, Life, Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan.
The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Tokyo, Japan.
J Evol Biol. 2024 Aug 1;37(8):978-985. doi: 10.1093/jeb/voae079.
Death feigning, a state of immobility observed in many animals in response to external stimuli, is an anti-predator behaviour. Although previous studies showed that death-feigning behaviours are quantitative genetic traits, the knowledge of the heritable basis of death-feigning behaviour is lacking. To investigate the heritable basis of death-feigning behaviour, we used 3 laboratory strains of a braconid parasitoid wasp, Heterospilus prosopidis. The heritable basis using half-sib analysis, and the effects of different geographical backgrounds, rearing conditions in the laboratory, and host age were evaluated. The results of the half-sib analysis showed that the frequency of death feigning varied among sires, suggesting a certain extent of additive genetic variance. Also, the frequency of death feigning varied between geographical backgrounds and among strains. Death-feigning frequency was not affected by the age of the host. Our findings highlight the importance of genetic factors underlying the basis of the death-feigning behaviour and provide support for the genetic alterations of traits from the perspective of evolution in various animal species.
装死，一种在许多动物中对外界刺激表现出的不动状态，是一种反捕食行为。尽管先前的研究表明，装死行为是定量遗传特征，但对装死行为的遗传基础知之甚少。为了研究装死行为的遗传基础，我们使用了 3 种实验室饲养的茧蜂科寄生蜂，异形胡蜂。利用半同胞分析评估了装死行为的遗传基础，以及不同地理背景、实验室饲养条件和宿主年龄的影响。半同胞分析的结果表明，装死的频率在父本之间存在差异，这表明存在一定程度的加性遗传方差。此外，装死的频率还受到地理背景和品系之间的影响。装死的频率不受宿主年龄的影响。我们的研究结果强调了遗传因素在装死行为基础中的重要性，并从不同动物物种进化的角度为特征的遗传改变提供了支持。
