ABSTRACT
Social interactions are typically impaired in neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism, for which the genetic underpinnings are very complex. Social interactions can be modeled by analysis of behaviors, including social spacing, sociability, and aggression, in simpler organisms such as Drosophila melanogaster. Here, we examined the effects of mutants of the autism-related gene neuroligin 3 (nlg3) on fly social and non-social behaviors. Startled-induced negative geotaxis is affected by a loss of function nlg3 mutation. Social space and aggression are also altered in a sex- and social-experience-specific manner in nlg3 mutant flies. In light of the conserved roles that neuroligins play in social behavior, our results offer insight into the regulation of social behavior in other organisms, including humans.
Subject(s)
Autistic Disorder/genetics , Cell Adhesion Molecules, Neuronal/genetics , Membrane Proteins/genetics , Nerve Tissue Proteins/genetics , Aggression/physiology , Animals , Autistic Disorder/metabolism , Behavior, Animal/physiology , Cell Adhesion Molecules, Neuronal/metabolism , Disease Models, Animal , Drosophila Proteins/metabolism , Drosophila melanogaster/metabolism , Female , Male , Membrane Proteins/metabolism , Nerve Tissue Proteins/metabolism , Social Behavior , Social InteractionABSTRACT
The gut microbiome modulates many essential functions including metabolism, immunity, and behaviour. Specifically, within behaviour, social behaviours such as sociability, aggregation, mating preference, avoidance, oviposition, and aggression are known to be regulated in part by this host-microbiome relationship. Here, we show the microbiome's role in the determination of social spacing in a sex- and genotype-specific manner. Future work can be done on characterizing the microbiome in each of these fly strains to identify the species of microbes present as well as their abundance.