How can behaviors be passed down genetically?
In: Biology
Behaviours can be passed down genetically because DNA codes for it.
Living would be very hard indeed if you had to learn how to breathe after being born. Instead, all animals with lungs instinctively know how.
Which behaviours are genetically passed down?
It’s probably a combination of nature (i.e. genetically) and nurture (i.e. that what you’re being taught by your parents).
It really seems some fairly complicated behaviors can be passed down. Building nests. Mating dances.
I’m also curious, there’s a lot of talk about how eating disorders are genetic. How does it work?
Let’s pick the behaviour of not drinking salty water. Genetically the tastebuds of some organisms will find salty water to be bitter and gross, the ones that don’t find it gross might drink it and may even die from drinking it preventing them from reproducing. Thus there is a higher likelihood of the salt water being bitter gene being passed down.
It modifies behaviour by making a stimuli present in such a way to direct the behaviour one way or another.
So to remove the anecdote, a gene can change the response to certain stimuli which can reinforce certain behaviours allowing it to get passed down. In the example I used, the behaviour being reinforced was to not drink salty water. Certain behaviours though are not passed down genetically which is why someone that is put up for adoption won’t automatically act exactly as their parents do. It’s part of the nature versus nurture paradigm.
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