The research led by the University of Basel (Switzerland) also indicates that the curiosity of these animals is influenced by specific genetic mutations, it says in a statement.
The study focused on Lake Tanganyika cichlids, which have extraordinary diversity in shape, diet, habitat and coloration, allowing them to inhabit diverse ecological niches and compete less with each other.
Researchers have long suspected that curiosity also acts as a driving force in the formation of new species, and the team used these fish to study the role of behavioral differences in adaptation to different ecological niches.
For nine months, they recorded the exploratory behavior of 57 species of cichlids on the southern shore of Lake Tanganyika, in Zambia.
The researchers videotaped how the approximately 700 cichlids captured in the lake behaved in a new environment in the form of large experimental ponds. Afterwards they were all returned to their natural habitat.
The team used the recordings to determine which areas of the experimental pond each fish explored over a 15-minute period and observed large differences in exploratory behavior between the various species.
The data “revealed a strong correlation between exploratory behavior and habitat with the body shape of the respective cichlid species,” the statement explains.
Species that live near coasts, with a voluminous body shape, are more curious than elongated species that live in open waters.
“This refocuses attention on animal behavior as a driving force for key evolutionary processes,” said the study’s first author, Carolin Sommer-Trembo.
To investigate the genetic basis of the observed behavioral differences, the team developed a method of analyzing existing genomes that would allow them to compare data between species.
Thus, they identified a genetic variant in the cichlid genome that showed “an almost perfect correlation” with exploratory behavior.
The researchers used the gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to induce selective mutations in the corresponding region of the genome and saw how the fish changed their exploratory behavior, becoming more curious.
The team used artificial intelligence and information on genetic variant, body structure and habitat to predict the exploratory behavior of cichlid species that had not initially been examined for their exploratory behavior.
The genetic variant identified by the researchers is located in the vicinity of the cacng5b gene, which shows activity in the brain, and which other vertebrates also have.
The human variant is associated with psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorders, which in turn may be correlated with personality disorders.
“We are interested in how personality traits can affect biodiversity mechanisms in the animal kingdom,” Sommer-Trembo said, but “ultimately, we might also learn something regarding the foundations of our own personality.”
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