Mutant studies of territorial aggression in Drosophila

描述（由申请人提供）：攻击性几乎是一个普遍的特征 社会性动物的行为。在野外，它经常被用来 为了食物和住所，为了保护免受捕食和选择配偶。 尽管它很重要，但人们对它背后的神经机制知之甚少。 行为在几乎所有被研究过的动物中， 侵略和/或领土行为。这并不奇怪， 因此，发现果蝇也表现出侵略性和领土性， 行为这些行为在果蝇物种中的存在并不广泛 然而，除了难以研究的夏威夷物种外，其他物种都是已知的。 有了强大的遗传和分子方法， 生物过程，果蝇提供了独特的机会， 旨在了解像攻击性这样的复杂行为 在体内组装和激活，并影响神经系统。的目标 这些研究中的一个是对战斗行为进行定量分析， 果蝇和使用的分析，以检查的后果， 特定的化学消融和神经元突变对行为的影响。 这些研究有两个具体目的。在第一个目标中，我们计划：（1） （2）创造条件，使战斗成为一种强有力的现象;（3）利用这些条件， 实验条件录像和分析战斗，以建立 （3）尝试定义一个简化的飞行评分程序 （4）问是否有一个长期的组成部分，以赢得和失去 苍蝇打架在第二个目标中，我们计划：（1）改变胺的水平 比如血清素、章鱼胺和多巴胺 观察对打斗行为的影响;（2）检查打斗行为 各种学习突变体的苍蝇;和（3）废除蘑菇机构， 苍蝇的大脑，这是众所周知的重要学习和记忆，使用 化学和转基因方法，并询问是否决策能力或 输赢的短期和长期后果也会改变。 这些研究涉及的人类健康问题是暴力、侵略、毒品 虐待和心理健康。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Aggression is a nearly universal feature of the behavior of social animals. In the wild, it is regularly used for access to food and shelter, for protection from predation and for selection of mates. Despite its importance, little is known of the neural mechanisms that underlie the behavior. In almost all species of animals in which it has been looked for, aggression and/or territorial behavior has been found. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that fruit flies also show aggression and territorial behavior. The existence of these behaviors in Drosophila species is not widely known, however, with the exception of the difficult to study Hawaiian species. With powerful genetic and molecular methods available to explore fundamental biological processes, Drosophila melanogaster offers unique opportunities for studies aimed at understanding how a complex behavior like aggression is assembled and activated within, and impacts upon the nervous system. The goals of these studies are to perform a quantitative analysis of fighting behavior in Drosophila melanogaster and to use the analysis to examine the consequences of specific chemical ablations and neuronal mutations on the behavior. There are two Specific Aims of these studies. In the First Aim we plan to: (1) establish conditions under which fighting is a robust phenomenon; (2) use these experimental conditions to videotape and analyze fights in order to construct an ethogram; (3) attempt to define a simplified scoring procedure for fly fights; (4) ask whether there is a long-term component to winning and losing fights in flies. In the Second Aim we plan to: (1) change the levels of amines like serotonin, octopamine and dopamine using chemical and mutant approaches and observe the effects on fighting behavior; (2) examine the fighting behavior of various learning mutants in flies; and (3) abolish mushroom bodies in the brains of flies, which are known to be important in learning and memory, using chemical and transgenic approaches and ask whether decision making ability or the short- and long-term consequences of winning or losing fights are altered. The human health issues these studies relate to are violence, aggression, drug abuse and mental health.