Social Structure in Drosophilids

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The relationship between genes, brains and social behaviour is a central problem in biology today. In the recent past scientists have abandoned the nature-nurture distinction. Now the interplay between inheritance and social norms is seen as the product of genes, the environment and the interaction between genes and the environment, an interaction that is not always straight-forward. In the lab we use the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster to investigate the genetics of sociality. Recently, we demonstrated that flies form non-random social interaction networks (SINs; Schneider et al., PNAS, 2012). Here, we propose to study SINs in a variety of Drosophila species. Our preliminary data from seven species suggest that these networks show conservation among the Drosophilids. We will extend these preliminary results to ask about 20-30 species, some caught in the wild, others obtained from stock centers. We will apply quantitative tests to assess whether the evolutionary history of these species is apparent from their networks. In addition, we will look for genetic signatures of conserved social elements in all of these species. We have candidate genes and we will test these using cutting edge techniques for manipulating genes in vivo. To better understand the evolutionary significance of these networks, we will ask whether networks of interactions based on proximity lead to networks of mating and fighting. We will look into how these different networks are interrelated. We will also investigate whether social networks strengthen the barrier between species. There are fly species that occupy overlapping geographic locations known as hybrid zones. We will capture flies from these zones and also from regions where they do not overlap. We will compare combinations of these types to assess the network structure of mixed species as a function of species isolation. These studies will tell us whether social networks are conserved among Drosophilids, whether the genes underlying these networks are conserved and whether the effects of these networks play out in evolutionary time. We cannot do this without NSERC.