The evolution of social behaviour under predation pressure: an experimental approach in guppies (Poecilia reticulata)

Predation is a major evolutionary force shaping behavioural traits in animals. While this is well documented in natural populations, direct experimental tests of how predation drives the evolution of behaviour are prominently lacking, particularly in vertebrates. New artificial selection lines on predation survival in guppies provide an unprecedented opportunity for causal conclusions into the evolutionary relationship between predation and behaviour. Here I will use these lines to test how predation shapes the evolution of social behaviour and to investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms. Those replicate lines have been selected for predation survival for three generations and they differ in several aspects of (social) cognition when compared to control lines. Consequently, I will assess how those predation-driven changes shape their social behaviours. As schooling behaviour, social behaviour, anti-predator response and performance in social foraging are highly fitness-relevant under predation pressure, I plan to examine how the lines differ in those. To further understand the genetic basis of social behaviour, I will link behavioural differences to genomic variation and reveal convergence in the genetic architecture of sociality by analysing genetic and transcriptomic data from these lines. This project integrates behavioural tests with genetic and transcriptomic assays to provide a comprehensive understanding of how predation drives the evolution of the social mind.