Presentation Details
| Does the Right Crowd Matter? Social Niche Matching Alters Aggression in Drosophila melanogaster Gihan D.Jayasinghe, Julia B.Saltz. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA |
Abstract
Gene-environment correlation can occur when individuals select environments based on their genotype and has been hypothesized to influence population-genetics parameters such as heritability. However, how these preferences shape downstream phenotypes remains poorly understood. We investigated genetic variation in group-size preference and its consequences for aggression in D. melanogaster. We quantified genetic variation in group-size preference by measuring how long males associated with groups of 0, 2, 4, or 8. Across 34 genotypes, we found social preferences were strictly polarized; every genotype exhibited a dominant preference for either the smallest non-zero (2) or the largest (8) group. We found significant differences in aggression when males were exposed to preferred (2,8) and avoided (0,4) group sizes. Crucially, a match between genotype-specific preference and assigned group size significantly altered aggression. Our ongoing work is to reveal how plastic responses across multiple behavioral traits are integrated across varying social group sizes, informed by these genotype-level preferences. Ultimately, active social choice directly shapes complex behavioral trajectories
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
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