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Related Experiment Videos

Evolution of foraging behavior in Drosophila by density-dependent selection

M B Sokolowski1, H S Pereira, K Hughes

  • 1Department of Biology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, North York, ON Canada M3J 1P3.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|July 8, 1997
PubMed
Summary

Fruit fly larvae foraging behavior, influenced by the rover and sitter alleles, changes with rearing density. High density selects for rover (long paths), while low density selects for sitter (short paths).

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Area of Science:

  • Behavioral genetics
  • Evolutionary biology
  • Drosophila melanogaster research

Background:

  • The foraging locus in fruit flies exhibits a natural behavioral polymorphism.
  • Larvae with the rover allele (forR) forage longer than sitter allele (fors) homozygotes.
  • The evolutionary drivers of this rover-sitter polymorphism remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of high and low animal rearing densities on larval foraging path length.
  • To determine if density-dependent natural selection influences the rover-sitter behavioral trait.

Main Methods:

  • Larval foraging path length was measured under controlled high and low rearing densities.
  • Three distinct base populations of Drosophila melanogaster were used.

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  • Genetic crosses were performed to analyze allele frequency changes.

    • Main Results:

    • High-density rearing selected for the long-path (rover) phenotype.
    • Low-density rearing selected for the short-path (sitter) phenotype.
    • Genetic analysis indicated shifts in the sitter (fors) allele frequency under low density.

    Conclusions:

    • Density-dependent natural selection can alter foraging behavior in fruit fly larvae.
    • Selection during the larval stage is sufficient to explain these observed changes.
    • Density-dependent mechanisms may maintain behavioral variation in laboratory populations.