Identifying gene pathways that underlie the structure of Drosophila social networks

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

One of the great challenges in modern biology is to understand how social groups arise through a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Social groups may be viewed from two perspectives. The group may appear as an entity: a beehive, mob, or a tribe, for example. Alternatively, social groups represent an environment that bestows identity, opportunity and protection to each member. Either way, social groups have structure and, until recently, little was known about their underlying neural and genetic mechanisms. The long-term objective of my research is to understand the biology of social groups. This is a central research problem in neurobehavioural biology, which requires a genetic, biochemical, physiological and behavioural approach. Recent research on sociality in the vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has emphasized the role of the social environment on a wide range of phenomena, extending from how genes are expressed to mating behaviour to decision making. Adding a social biology perspective to questions across various biological fields is essential to fully understanding the biology of all organisms and promises to reveal novel insights arising from the group, as opposed to the individual. My lab's research on how genes contribute to social structure, the purpose of social networks in nature and how Drosophila social groups interpret numbers will enrich our understanding of the biology of social groups. Here, we propose three short term objectives: i) to identify genes, biochemical pathways and neural circuits required for social network structure to unfold; ii) to address the evolutionary purpose of these networks; iii) to investigate our recent observation that individual members of a network adjust their behaviour according to the number of individuals in their group. This suggests that flies are able count the number of others present in their environment and this primitive display of numeracy may contribute to more sophisticated cognitive processes involved in group decision making.