Interactions Between Neurohormonal Systems: Studies at the Genetic and Cellular Level

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Aggression is an innate behavior essential for access to mates, food and shelter. Its pathological form, violence, is a serious problem in society. In both cases, aggression has biological roots that remain poorly understood. This project examines aggression in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, focusing on the learning and memory that accompanies winning and losing fights in male flies. Losing flies remember and fight differently against familiar and non-familiar opponents, but losers lose second fights against all opponents (a behaviorally conditioned "loser mentality" develops). With powerful genetic methods available that allow manipulation of genes anytime and anywhere desired in the nervous system, and with an important behavior to examine, fruit flies offer ideal experimental animals in which to combine genetic and behavioral approaches in asking the following questions: 1. How long do flies remember status, and does the training protocol influence the duration of the memory? 2. Do genes identified as serving important roles in learning and memory in simple test protocols in flies or in other systems serve similar roles in the more complex socially-mediated learning and memory accompanying aggression in this model? 3. What roles do amine transmitters like serotonin and dopamine serve in the learning and memory accompanying aggression? 4. Do changes in gene expression accompany changes in social status? In addition to the challenging scientific questions being addressed, this project offers a broad range of training opportunities. High school, undergraduate, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows continue to work on the project and will be involved at all levels. Teaching modules used in colleges have been designed around both of the PI's earlier lobster and the present fruit fly experimental systems and the videos generated in the Kravitz laboratory are being used in teaching behavioral biology by faculty around the world.