Presentation Details
Evolutionary biology of sociability: using genetic screens in fruit flies to study mammalian sociability

Jack Rosenbaum, Vajran Sugunanavalan, Jacco Renstrom, Siyao Li, Katrina Choe, Reuven Dukas.

Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Abstract


Sociability is individuals' tendencies to engage in friendly activities, such as feeding, traveling, and resting with conspecifics. To enhance our understanding of the evolutionary biology of sociability, we conducted genetic analyses, which identified over 300 candidate sociability genes in fruit flies. We also verified via experiments using RNA interference the direct effects of 28 genes on sociability. One of the genes with strongest effects on sociability was Sec5. Sec5 and its human ortholog, EXOC2, code for a subunit of the exocyst complex, which is involved in the release of neurotransmitters from synaptic vesicles. To test whether EXOC2 affects mammalian sociability, we generated via CRISPR neuron-specific Exoc2 knockout mice. We found that knocking out both copies of Exoc2 in neurons was lethal, and that knocking out a single copy of Exoc2 in neurons failed to reduce Exoc2 expression. We thus generated mice with partial deletion of neuronal Exoc2 using a Cre-conditional virus and tested their sociability. Using such approaches, we intend to study the effects of other newly discovered fruit-fly sociability genes on sociability in mammals including humans.

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