Love Thy Neighbour? Social and Sexual Accommodation in Fruitfies

许多物种的个体通过适应环境来增加潜在的竞争力。一个熟悉的例子是“语言适应”，个人通常无意中采用周围人的口音或语言模式。在果蝇中，雄性对它们的社会和性环境表现出精确的反应。在发现同种竞争对手后，雄性会将更多的射精蛋白传递给雌性，从而产生更多的后代。雄性通过多个冗余的感官输入来探测对手。第一个目标是测试该系统是否稳健、不受误射影响并能带来显著效益。我们最近对暴露在竞争对手面前的雄性的基因表达的分析揭示了一种冗余的特征，相似的感官输入经过不同的途径产生相同的输出。第二个目的是通过分析缺乏感官输入的雄性的基因表达模式，直接测试这种基因组冗余。最后的目的是测试同样的规则是否适用于亲密物种的雄性相互作用中的检测。识别中的“错误”显然与亲缘关系或杂交潜力无关。该项目处于识别识别机制的前沿，与昆虫控制有关，利用我们的知识通过基因沉默来操纵生殖生物学。

Individuals of many species adjust to their environment to increase their potential competitiveness. A familiar example is 'speech accommodation', where individuals, often unintentionally, adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around them. In fruitflies, males show precise responses to their social and sexual environment. Following detection of conspecific rivals, males transfer more ejaculate proteins to females and sire more offspring. Males detect rivals using multiple, redundant sensory inputs. The first aim is to test the idea that this system is robust, immune to mis-firing and confers significant benefits. Our recent analysis of gene expression in males exposed to rivals reveals a signature of redundancy, with similar sensory inputs following different pathways to result in the same output. The second aim is to test directly for such genomic redundancy, by analyzing the gene expression patterns of responding males that lack sensory inputs. The final aim is to test whether the same rules apply to detection in interactions involving males of closely related species. 'Mistakes' in identification are apparently not related to relatedness or the potential to hybridise.The proposed project is at the forefront of identifying recognition mechanisms and is relevant to insect control, by using our knowledge to manipulate reproductive biology via gene silencing.