Evidence of conditioned behavior in amoebae

Associative memory is the main type of learning by which complex organisms endowed with evolved nervous systems respond efficiently to certain environmental stimuli. It has been found in different multicellular species, from cephalopods to humans, but never in individual cells. Here we describe a mo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2019-08, Vol.10 (1), p.3690-12, Article 3690
Main Authors: De la Fuente, Ildefonso M., Bringas, Carlos, Malaina, Iker, Fedetz, María, Carrasco-Pujante, Jose, Morales, Miguel, Knafo, Shira, Martínez, Luis, Pérez-Samartín, Alberto, López, José I., Pérez-Yarza, Gorka, Boyano, María Dolores
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/326/88
631/378/1595
631/80
Amoeba
Amoeba - physiology
Association Learning - physiology
Associative learning
Associative memory
Behavior
Biology
Cephalopods
Conditioned stimulus
Conditioning
Conditioning, Classical - physiology
Electric fields
Environmental effects
Experiments
Humanities and Social Sciences
Locomotion
Locomotion - physiology
Memory
Motility
multidisciplinary
Organisms
Peptides
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Unconditioned stimulus
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Summary:Associative memory is the main type of learning by which complex organisms endowed with evolved nervous systems respond efficiently to certain environmental stimuli. It has been found in different multicellular species, from cephalopods to humans, but never in individual cells. Here we describe a motility pattern consistent with associative conditioned behavior in the microorganism Amoeba proteus . We use a controlled direct-current electric field as the conditioned stimulus, and a specific chemotactic peptide as the unconditioned stimulus. The amoebae are capable of linking two independent past events, generating persistent locomotion movements that can prevail for 44 min on average. We confirm a similar behavior in a related species, Metamoeba leningradensis . Thus, our results indicate that unicellular organisms can modify their behavior during migration by associative conditioning. Associative memory is the main type of learning by which complex organisms respond to certain environmental stimuli. Here, De la Fuente et al. describe a motility pattern consistent with associative conditioned behaviour in unicellular amoebae.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-019-11677-w