Molecular analysis of flies selected for aggressive behavior.

TitleMolecular analysis of flies selected for aggressive behavior.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2006
AuthorsDierick HA, Greenspan RJ
JournalNat Genet
Volume38
Issue9
Pagination1023-31
Date Published2006 Sep
ISSN1061-4036
KeywordsAggression, Agonistic Behavior, Animals, Behavior, Animal, DNA Mutational Analysis, Drosophila melanogaster, Male, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, RNA, Selection, Genetic
Abstract

Aggressive behavior is pervasive throughout the animal kingdom, and yet very little is known about its molecular underpinnings. To address this problem, we have developed a population-based selection procedure to increase aggression in Drosophila melanogaster. We measured changes in aggressive behavior in the selected subpopulations with a new two-male arena assay. In only ten generations of selection, the aggressive lines became markedly more aggressive than the neutral lines. After 21 generations, the fighting index increased more than 30-fold. Using microarray analysis, we identified genes with differing expression levels in the aggressive and neutral lines as candidates for this strong behavioral selection response. We tested a small set of these genes through mutant analysis and found that one significantly increased fighting frequency. These results suggest that selection for increases in aggression can be used to molecularly dissect this behavior.

DOI10.1038/ng1864
Alternate JournalNat. Genet.
PubMed ID16906161
Category: 
Greenspan Laboratory