Exploring the Genetic Underpinnings of Aggression in Drosophila melanogaster

Aggression is a multidimensional social behavior observed in a wide range of animal species. Displays of aggression serve as an integral component of intraspecies competition for access to resources, territory, and mates. Despite being seen across nearly every facet of the animal kingdom, our understanding of how genes mediate aggression remains limited. A growing body of contemporary research has chosen to adopt the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster as an important tool in the modelling and study of aggression. Although references to aggression in Drosophila appear in the early 1900s (Sturtevant, 1915), the study of aggression in Drosophila received limited attention from researchers until the early 2000s. In 2006, Dierick and Greenspan were the first to investigate the genetic underpinnings of Drosophila aggression in an unbiased fashion. They described in detail how candidate genes for Drosophila aggression were identified by genetically screening fly strains that were selectively bred for heightened aggression. They identified that the Cyp6a20 gene mediated aggression at the phenotypic level. Dierick and Greenspan (2006) is an excellent demonstration of how the application of behavioral genetic concepts to genetics research can inform our understanding of how genes mediate behavior. This paper constitutes an excellent teaching resource for any behavioral neuroscience course and is a fine example of how comparatively simple model organisms like Drosophila can be used to dissect the genetic underpinnings of complex behavior.