Collaborative Research: Genetic Architecture of Exploration in Drosophila

合作研究：果蝇探索的遗传结构

• 批准号: 2135306
• 负责人: Yuan Yuan Kang
• 金额: $ 23.87万
• 依托单位: University of Houston - Downtown
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-04-01 至 2025-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2135306&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Genetic; Architecture; Exploration

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Neophilia is the attraction to novel stimuli, and it varies strongly within and between species. Higher levels of neophilia are believed to lead to greater behavioral flexibility, effecting an animal’s ability to adapt to changes in their environments and to invade new ecosystems successfully. The proposed work will focus on identifying genes and neurons responsible for neophilia. This work will use novel arena exploration assays with varied and integrated genetic approaches. In Drosophila melanogaster, mutant and transgenic lines will be used to determine the requirements of dopamine signaling within the brain to initiate neophilic exploration. A new genetic mapping population generated from the sister species of Drosophila will also be used to map genetic variants involved in the differences in exploratory behaviors found between these two closely related species. These two approaches will help explain why enormous differences in neophilic exploration are found in insect species. This understanding will likely transcend insects and shed light on neophilia in other species. The work will further generate several lasting societal benefits, including the generation of a novel mapping population that can be used to identify important genetic variants controlling many complex physiology and behavior responses. These lineages will be broadly distributed to investigators. The proposed experiments are highly accessible to undergraduate researchers and will be used to train students at both the University of Mississippi and the University of Houston Downtown, many from underserved groups, in scientific inquiry and in the genetic approaches to neuroscience and behavior. Understanding the molecular and neural basis for neophilia is required to explain the broad inter- and intraspecific variation in this behavioral trait. The goal of this proposal is to understand how neophilia is encoded in the Drosophila nervous system, including an identification of the molecules and neural circuits responsible for recognizing novel stimuli and inducing arousal in the animal. Our central hypothesis is that during the evolution of food specialization in Drosophila species, genetic variants that reduced neophilia were selected for, resulting in a loss of specific exploration; dopamine signaling is also likely involved. Novel open field exploration of Drosophila species combined with varied genetic approaches will be used to identify the genetic variants responsible for differences in novelty-seeking behavior. Novel open field arenas have long been used to measure trait and state-dependent changes in exploration in various laboratory species. Interestingly, Drosophila simulans, an ecological generalist, actively explores novel arenas, while its sister species and ecological specialist, Drosophila sechellia, does not. A population of recombinant inbred lineages generated from these Drosophila sister species will be used to identify the quantitative trait loci responsible for the evolved differences in neophilia found between these species. Moreover, a reverse genetic/transgenic approach will be used to dissect the role of specific dopaminergic circuits in novelty arousal using Drosophila melanogaster. In this approach, the function of dopamine neural circuits and participating receptors required for the initiation of exploration will be identified. These approaches will provide unprecedented detail on the neurobiology of neophilia.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项的全部或部分资金根据《2021 年美国救援计划法案》（公法 117-2）提供。新奇癖是指对新奇刺激的吸引力，在物种内部和物种之间存在很大差异。 人们认为，较高水平的新恋情会带来更大的行为灵活性，影响动物适应环境变化和成功侵入新生态系统的能力。 拟议的工作将集中于识别与新恋癖相关的基因和神经元。 这项工作将使用具有各种综合遗传方法的新颖的领域探索测定。 在黑腹果蝇中，突变体和转基因系将用于确定大脑内多巴胺信号传导的需求，以启动亲新探索。 从果蝇姐妹物种产生的新遗传图谱群体也将用于绘制与这两个密切相关的物种之间发现的探索行为差异有关的遗传变异。 这两种方法将有助于解释为什么在昆虫物种中发现新事物探索的巨大差异。 这种理解可能会超越昆虫，并为其他物种的嗜新虫现象提供线索。 这项工作将进一步产生一些持久的社会效益，包括生成新的绘图群体，可用于识别控制许多复杂生理和行为反应的重要遗传变异。 这些谱系将广泛分发给研究人员。 拟议的实验对于本科研究人员来说很容易获得，并将用于培训密西西比大学和休斯顿市中心大学的学生，其中许多来自服务不足的群体，进行科学探究以及神经科学和行为的遗传方法。 要解释这种行为特征广泛的种间和种内变异，需要了解新恋癖的分子和神经基础。 该提案的目标是了解果蝇神经系统中新恋情的编码方式，包括识别负责识别新刺激并诱导动物兴奋的分子和神经回路。 我们的中心假设是，在果蝇物种食物专业化的进化过程中，选择了减少新食性的遗传变异，导致特定探索的丧失；多巴胺信号传导也可能参与其中。对果蝇物种的新颖的野外探索与不同的遗传方法相结合，将用于识别导致寻求新奇行为差异的遗传变异。 新颖的开放场地长期以来一直被用来测量各种实验室物种探索中的性状和状态依赖性变化。有趣的是，模拟果蝇（Drosophila simulans）是一位生态通才，积极探索新的领域，而它的姊妹物种和生态专家果蝇（Drosophila sechellia）则不然。 从这些果蝇姐妹物种中产生的重组近交谱系群体将用于鉴定数量性状基因座，这些基因座负责在这些物种之间发现的新蝇进化差异。 此外，将使用反向遗传/转基因方法来剖析特定多巴胺能回路在黑腹果蝇新奇唤醒中的作用。 在这种方法中，将确定启动探索所需的多巴胺神经回路和参与受体的功能。 这些方法将提供有关新恋神经生物学的前所未有的详细信息。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Drosophila genotypes can be predicted from their exploration locomotive trajectories using supervised machine learning

可以使用监督机器学习从果蝇的探索运动轨迹中预测果蝇基因型

• DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104944
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Behavioural Processes
• 影响因子: 1.3
• 作者: Nguyen, Minh;Roman, Gregg W.;Soibam, Benjamin
• 通讯作者: Soibam, Benjamin