Written by Liao Wenbo, Jiang Ying

Editor-in-charge - Wang Sizhen

Editor — Binwei Yang

As the nervous system of cognition, learning, memory and information processing of the organism, the brain's adaptability to environmental changes can improve the suitability of species, thereby ensuring the reproduction

In August 2022, the research team of Professor Liao Wenbo of West China Normal University, together with Dr Alexander Kotrschal of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and Professor Stefan Lüpold of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, published a conference entitled "Cognition contra camouflage: how the brain mediates predator-driven" at Science Advances The research paper "crypsis evolution", taking 102 species of amphibians in China as the research object, through nearly 6 years of field observation, and integrating multi-dimensional research methods such as morphology, behavior, anatomy, and phylogenetics, tested the new hypothesis proposed by the team, that is, amphibians reduce the pressure of predation by evolving obvious hidden colors and lead to a decrease

The researchers first conducted a concealed color pre-experiment for the human eye using 49 tailless amphibians between 2015 and 2017, taking pictures of the subjects through a camera, then standardizing the photos by standard color cards, and then the volunteers scored the similarity between the frog and the environment in the photo, and then performed statistical analysis, and the researchers found that their degree of concealment score showed a significant negative correlation with brain size (brain: t₄₆ = −2.

Between 2018 and 2020, the team collected a total of 102 common tailless amphibians in the wild, using a spectrometer (Ocean Optics HR2000+) to measure the reflection spectrum of the frog's dorsal and abdominal skin, while measuring the reflection spectrum of the frog's wild habitat, and then calculating its color contrast (ΔL) and Chromatic Contrast (ΔS)

Figure 1 Phylogenetic relationships

(Credit: Liao, WB.

As one of the traits of animals' anti-natural enemy ability, the role of hidden color is closely related to

To better understand whether these interspecies associations are associated with paired variables in the independent evolutionary process of homotropy or anisotropy, the researchers used the maximum likelihood method and the Chichi Information Criterion (AIC) to study
models of evolutionary orientation tests of different traits.

It was found that changes in relative brain size depend on predator stress (Figure 2A); The degree of concealment of the back increases with the increased risk of predation (Figure 2 B); For the occult color of the abdomen, there is no correlation with predatory pressure (Figure 2C
).

Figure 2 Relationship between predatory pressure, relative brain size, and hidden color

(Credit: Liao, WB.
et al.
, Sci Adv, 2022）

To further explore the role of brain size in the evolution of hidden colors driven by predatory stress, the researchers used pathway analysis of the developmental relationships of the control system and found that there was a negative correlation between predatory pressure and male brain size (Figures 3 A, B), while male brain size had a significant effect on the concealed color of his back (Figure 3 A) and no effect on the concealed color of his abdomen (Figure 3 B).


Path analysis for female back concealment colors, the results are similar to those for male back concealment colors (Figure 3C
).

Figure 3 Path analysis between predatory pressure, body size, concealed color, relative brain size, and relative hindlimb muscle weight

(Credit: Liao, WB.
et al.
, Sci Adv, 2022）

Of course, there are still some questions that need to be further explored in this study, such as whether there is such an evolutionary relationship between the brain volume and hidden color of different populations of amphibians of the same species in the face of different natural enemy pressures.

In short, this study is another important result
achieved by Liao Wenbo's team based on long-term work in the direction of the evolution of amphibian brain volume adaptation.

The series of work will provide a new systematic research framework
for animal adaptation to the environment and biodiversity conservation research.

Original link:author and corresponding author Liao Wenbo

(Photo courtesy of Liao Wenbo Research Group of China West Normal University)

About the Author (swipe up and down to read)

Wenbo Liao, Executive Deputy Director of the Key Laboratory of Wildlife Resources Conservation of the Ministry of Education in Southwest China, and member of the editorial board of the international journal Journal of Zoology, Animal Biology, Asian Herpetological Research
.

He has won the Young Scientist Award of the International Zoological Society, the Young Science and Technology Award of the Zoological Society of China, and the Young Science and Technology Award
of the Ecological Society of China.

In recent years, he has presided over 5 national natural science foundations, 1 project of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, 1 project of Sichuan Provincial Science and Technology Innovation Team, 1 sichuan outstanding youth science fund, and 8 other projects
.

Research papers have been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), Science Advances, Molecular Ecology, Evolution, American Naturalist, Molecular Ecology Resources, Diversity andDistributions and other authoritative academic journals in this field have a total of 119 papers, including 8 ESI highly cited papers, 100 of the most influential international papers in China, and 3 monographs
.

The papers were published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Nature Ecology and Evolution, Biological Reviews, Elife, Molecular Ecology and other high-level journals have been cited a total of 2013 times
.

[1] J Neuroinflammation—From Changchun/Jian Zhang's team found that targeting proteoglycan receptors after hemorrhagic stroke protects white matter integrity and promotes the recovery of neurological function

[2] Front Aging Neurosci—Zeng Yanbing's team established a predictive model and revealed the effects of behavioral changes on cognitive impairment in the elderly

[3] Sci Adv-Zhao Cunyou/Chen Rongqing team revealed the mechanism of microRNA inducing social and memory abnormalities in mice: miR-501-3p expression defects enhance glutamate delivery

[4] Sci Adv-Zhang Yi's research group found important neurons that regulate drug addiction behavior

[5] J Infect-Yifei Wang's team revealed that mamdc2, a highly expressed gene in Alzheimer's disease microglia, positively regulates the innate antiviral response of neurovirus infection

[6] Sci Adv—Xia Kun/Shen Yiping/Guo Hui revealed the relationship between key regulatory genes of stress particles and neurodevelopmental disorders

[7] Cell Prolif-Lai Liangxue/Zhang Kun/Zou Qingjian team successfully built a technical system for safe and efficient directional induction of motor neurons in vivo

[8] Nat Commun–Peng Yueqing's team discovered a new brain region that controls non-REM sleep

[9] eClinicalMedicine-Wang Qing's team reported that the correlation indicators of Dementia in Parkinson's disease were determined: quantitative EEG, serum metabolism and inflammation

【10】Cell Biosci | Wang Yongjun's research group revealed the molecular mechanism of D-type Dopa pigment isomerase-mediated inflammatory response to injured spinal cord

[1] Training course - R language clinical prediction biomedical statistics special training

【1】2022 World Artificial Intelligence Conference | Brain-Machine Intelligent Fusion - Connecting the Brain to the Future (Shanghai World Expo Center, September 2)

References (swipe up and down to read)

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