Mutant Studies of Aggression in Drosophila

描述（由申请人提供）：攻击性是一种复杂的行为，可以在许多不同的社会环境中表现出来。这种行为经常被滥用，但对生物体的生存至关重要，人们对这种行为的生物学根源知之甚少。虽然模型系统可能不会复制攻击的所有人类表现形式，但它们可以提供大量信息：基因、激素和经验在确定神经系统攻击模式方面的相对重要性；详细描述所涉及的神经回路；并解决了动物如何在其行为库里的各种复杂行为中进行选择的问题。最后两个问题是目前应用的主要焦点。近年来，Kravitz实验室建立了果蝇的攻击模型，使这一重要行为可用于实验分析，这种生物非常适合进行遗传分析。果蝇的攻击性是复杂的，雄性和雌性都表现出来，动物参与许多其他相互关联的行为，这些行为可以定量分析。然而，除此之外，基因组已经被测序，并且有了令人难以置信的强大方法，可以用果蝇进行实验操作，这在大多数其他动物模型系统中甚至无法接近。最近，研究人员发现，决定谁是苍蝇的基因也决定了苍蝇是雄性还是雌性。本应用扩展了这些研究，具有以下具体目的：1 .通过绘制和操纵果蝇大脑味觉中枢食道下神经节（SOG）内的无果/双性相关回路，探索果蝇求爱和攻击这两种两性二态行为模式之间的决策；2。绘制与SOG通路相关的胺和肽受体的分布；ⅲ。在有行为的动物中，将基因引入神经元，改变这些神经细胞的功能，并开始解决雄性和雌性动物中相同的神经元是如何不同的问题。这些研究使用各种最先进的遗传学、行为学和解剖学方法来探索这些目标。例如，在与台湾蒋实验室的合作研究中，将绘制神经元图，以便详细检查涉及求爱和攻击的单个神经元之间可能存在的联系。研究的重点将是在比现在更高的分辨率上定义在攻击和求爱中重要的大脑回路，然后研究这种回路是如何在苍蝇的大脑中建立起来的，以及当冲突情况出现时，动物是如何选择不同的行为反应的。公共卫生相关性：包括人类在内的所有生物都必须能够迅速评估社会状况，并从各种可能的行为选择中选择适当的反应。这样的选择必须正确，才能使有机体作为个体和物种生存下去。生物体是如何做出这样的选择的，以及复杂的先天行为模式是如何在神经系统中建立起来的，这些都不是很好理解，也是本应用的主题。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Aggression is a complex behavior expressed in many different social contexts. Often abused, yet essential for the survival of organisms, little is known of the biological roots of this behavior. While model systems may not duplicate aggression in all of its many human manifestations, they can be highly informative about: the relative importance of genes, hormones and experience in laying down patterns of aggression in nervous systems; detailing the neural circuitry involved; and addressing questions of how animals choose among the varied complex behaviors available within their behavioral repertoires. It is the last two matters that are the major focus of the present application. In recent years, the Kravitz laboratory has established a fruit fly model of aggression making this important behavior available for experimental analysis in an organism that is highly suitable for genetic analysis. With fruit flies aggression is complex and is shown by both males and females, the animals engage in many other inter-related behaviors, and the behaviors can be quantitatively analyzed. In addition, however, the genome has been sequenced and incredibly powerful methods are available that allow experimental manipulations to be performed with fruit flies that cannot yet even be approximated in most other animal model systems. Recently, it has been found that the same gene that determines who flies court also determines whether flies fight like males or females. The present application extends these studies and has the following Specific Aims: I. To explore decision-making between courtship and aggression, two sexually dimorphic patterns of behavior in flies, by mapping and manipulating the fruitless/doublesex-associated circuitry within the subesophageal ganglion (SOG), the taste center in fruit fly brains; II. To map the distribution of receptors for amines and peptides associated with the SOG circuitry; and III. To introduce genes into neurons that can alter the function of these nerve cells in behaving animals and to begin to address the question of how the same neurons differ in male and female animals. These studies use a wide variety of state-of-the-art genetic, behavioral and anatomical methods in exploring these Aims. For example, in collaborative studies with the Chiang laboratory in Taiwan, neuronal maps will be made that will allow examination in great detail of the possible connections between individual neurons involved in courtship and aggression. The focus will be to define the brain circuitry important in aggression and courtship at much higher levels of resolution than are now available, and then to ask how that circuitry gets established in fly brains and how animals choose between behavioral responses when conflict situations arise. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: All organisms, including humans, must be capable of rapidly evaluating social situations and selecting proper responses from what may be a wide variety of possible behavioral choices. Such selections must be made correctly in order to allow the survival of organisms both as individuals and as species. How organisms make such choices and how patterns of innate behavior of great complexity get established in nervous systems are not well understood, and are the theme of this application.