Evolutionary biology of social behavior: fruit flies as a model system
Evolutionary biology of social behavior: fruit flies as a model systemProf Reuven DukasMcMaster University
Sociability, defined as the tendency to engage in friendly activities with others, is ubiquitous among animals including humans. We have used fruit flies to examine the evolutionary biology of, and mechanisms underlying sociability. Fruit flies show heritable variation in sociability. We artificially selected for low and high sociability in fruit flies. After 25 generations of selection, the high sociability lineages showed sociability scores 50% higher than did the low sociability lineages. We have identified candidate sociability genes and are now in the process of critically testing the effect of these genes on sociability.