Social networks in drosophila

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

We learn about ourselves by studying the world around us. The fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, is a powerful genetic system that has provided insight into the development of the body, the function of the nervous system, the genetic basis of behaviour. But the fly is not only 'good for genetics', it is interesting in its own right: it lives and learns in ways that correspond to many other species - even our own. In this proposal we ask for support from NSERC to understand the biological basis of social networks. In fact we have already observed that social networks in Drosophila share characteristics with human networks. We have developed a method to analyze groups based on human social network analysis. In addition, we have used genetic mutants to show that some genes affect the network (other genes don't). The studies proposed here will lead to a better understanding of the genes that contribute to a social group. By extension, these results will allow us to develop hypotheses about the genes that contribute to social behaviour in humans.