Ryan Wong
University of Nebraska at Omaha, NE·Neuroscience·Early-career
Animals differ in how they fight, learn and cope with stress, and these differences can shape both individual survival and the evolution of new species. The research asks how the brain and genes produce these behavioral differences.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Ecology & Evolution
Biology
- Topics
cichlid
Pundamilia
Lake Victoria
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2030
What they work on
- Estimate how many genetic loci control aggression bias and male body color in red Pundamilia nyererei and blue P. pundamilia cichlids, and whether they are linked, using quantitative genetics and QTL mapping.
- Test how social experience and social context shape whether territorial cichlid males aim more aggression at rivals that resemble their own coloration.
- Identify the neural mechanisms behind aggression bias in cichlids using neural activity mapping, drug manipulation of dopamine signaling and brain transcriptome (whole gene-expression) analysis.
- Determine how proactive versus reactive stress coping styles interact with learning context and reinforcement type to produce differences in associative and spatial learning and memory.
- Relate learning differences to brain-region activity and synaptic plasticity gene expression, and test whether candidate genes are needed for learning by manipulating their expression.
More about the research
Two projects in fish connect behavior to its neural and genetic causes. One examines aggression that may help split one species into two. The other examines how personality type limits learning and memory.
Why it matters
This basic research shows how competition between males can drive the formation and coexistence of species, which bears on how biodiversity arises. It also shows how personality type, stress, genes and brain activity together limit learning and memory. The genes and brain circuits it identifies could become targets for understanding biased thinking and behavior. Later work could test whether the same mechanisms explain behavioral variation in other animals.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Johann Hofmann
University of Texas at Austin, TX·Ecology & Evolution
Estimate how many genetic loci control aggression bias and male body coloration, and how tightly they are linked, using quantitative genetics and QTL mapping in red Pundamilia nyererei and blue P. pundamilia cichlids.
James Liao
University of Florida, FL·Neuroscience
Compare lateral line sensitivity between surface fish and blind cavefish across larval development, using in vivo patch clamp recordings from neurons connected to flow-sensing hair cells.
Yuan Yuan Kang
University of Houston-Downtown, TX·Neuroscience
Map quantitative trait loci behind the difference in novel-arena exploration between generalist Drosophila simulans and specialist Drosophila sechellia, using a new population of recombinant inbred lines.
The school
University of Nebraska at Omaha: 2 labs on PI Pages, $35M a year on research, 38 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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