A Genetic Approach to the Study of Simple Cognitive Abilities in Animals

Inga I. Poletaeva,

Zoya A. Zorina

Published: Sept. 26, 2014

One of the urgent problems in cognitive studies and in neurobiology as a whole is to delineate the impact of genetic factors in the variability of animal cognitive abilities. The concept of animal cognition is frequently used in a broad sense to include all phenomena with behavioral manifestations of neural plasticity. The variable phenomena related to animal cognition could be subdivided into two main categories, although only the first of them will be analyzed in this paper. The first category is represented by “basal” cognitive abilities, which embrace spatial cognitive behavior and elementary reasoning (simple logic task solutions). The second …

The genome of a landlocked Atlantic salmon Salmo salar characterized through high-throughput sequencing

H. Hauge,

T. Tengs,

M. K. Dahle,

A. B. Kristoffersen,

S. Grove,

C. R. Wiik-Nielsen

Published: Oct. 31, 2016

A wide range of life-history tactics can be found within salmonid fish. The genetic basis for these adaptations remains largely unknown, but we have sought to investigate any large scale genetic changes associated with a non-anadromous life cycle. After the most recent ice age (approximately 9,500 years ago), some populations of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L., were trapped in fresh water and developed into isolated landlocked populations that managed to complete a full life cycle without ever reaching the marine environment. To explore whether this transition was accompanied by gene-loss events, high-throughput sequencing of a non-migratory Namsblank (‘småblank’), an Atlantic …