title: Drosophila social clustering is disrupted by anesthetics and in narrow abdomen ion channel mutants.
abstract: Members of many species tend to congregate, a behavioral strategy known as local enhancement. Selective advantages of local enhancement range from efficient use of resources to defense from predators. While previous studies have examined many types of social behavior in fruit flies, few have specifically investigated local enhancement. Resource-independent local enhancement (RILE) has recently been described in the fruit fly using a measure called social space index (SSI), although the neural mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we analyze RILE of Drosophila under conditions that allow us to elucidate its neural mechanisms. We have investigated the effects of general volatile anesthetics, compounds that compromise higher order functioning of the type typically required for responding to social cues. We exposed Canton-S flies to non-immobilizing concentrations of halothane and found that flies had a significantly decreased SSI compared with flies tested in air. Narrow abdomen (na) mutants, which display altered responses to anesthetics in numerous behavioral assays, also have a significantly reduced SSI, an effect that was fully reversed by restoring expression of na by driving a UAS-NA rescue construct with NA-GAL4. We found that na expression in cholinergic neurons fully rescued the behavioral defect, whereas expression of na in glutamatergic neurons did so only partially. Our results also suggest a role for na expression in the mushroom bodies (MBs), as suppressing na expression in the MBs of NA-GAL4 rescue flies diminishes SSI. Our data indicate that RILE, a simple behavioral strategy, requires complex neural processing.
authors: Section on Neural Function, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. burged@mail.nih.gov
authors: E D
authors: ED
authors: Burg
authors: S T
authors: ST
authors: Langan
authors: H A
authors: HA
authors: Nash
mesh_terms: D018685:Anesthetics, Inhalation / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D059329:Cholinergic Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D003463:Cues; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D006221:Halothane / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000235:genetics*; D024521:Mushroom Bodies / Q000378:metabolism; D009154:Mutation; D012919:Social Behavior; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D018685:Anesthetics, Inhalation; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D007473:Ion Channels; C476573:Na protein, Drosophila; D006221:Halothane
references: Trends Genet. 2009 Jun;25(6):262-9
references: 19446357
references: Anesth Analg. 2004 Jun;98(6):1705-1711
references: 15155332
references: Anesthesiology. 1981 Apr;54(4):289-93
references: 6782911
references: Genes Brain Behav. 2012 Mar;11(2):243-52
references: 22010812
references: J Neurobiol. 2006 Sep 15;66(11):1195-211
references: 16858694
references: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Aug 17;101(33):12342-7
references: 15302936
references: Cell. 1996 May 31;85(5):651-9
references: 8646774
references: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Oct 29;99(22):14274-9
references: 12391295
references: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Mar 15;91(6):2135-9
references: 8134360
references: Brain Behav. 2012 Mar;2(2):97-108
references: 22574279
references: J Neurogenet. 1994 Jul;9(3):189-206
references: 7965387
references: Pflugers Arch. 2005 Oct;451(1):19-28
references: 15952038
references: Neuron. 1997 Dec;19(6):1249-59
references: 9427248
references: Nature. 2010 Jan 14;463(7278):227-31
references: 19966787
references: Nature. 1999 Aug 19;400(6746):753-6
references: 10466722
references: J Comp Neurol. 2008 May 1;508(1):131-52
references: 18302156
references: Neuron. 2007 Jan 4;53(1):103-15
references: 17196534
references: Learn Mem. 2006 Jan-Feb;13(1):72-83
references: 16418434
references: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Nov;87(21):8632-6
references: 2122464
references: Learn Mem. 2006 Nov-Dec;13(6):686-9
references: 17101876
references: Oecologia. 2004 Aug;140(4):654-61
references: 15232730
references: Learn Mem. 1998 May-Jun;5(1-2):179-91
references: 10454382
references: Anim Cogn. 2006 Oct;9(4):335-53
references: 17024510
references: Anesth Analg. 1993 Jul;77(1):19-26
references: 8317731
references: J Neurobiol. 2005 Feb 15;62(3):386-96
references: 15547935
references: Fly (Austin). 2010 Jul-Sep;4(3):194-203
references: 20657190
references: Behav Genet. 1975 Jan;5(1):9-16
references: 803834
references: Adv Genet. 2008;62:67-184
references: 19010254
references: Curr Biol. 2004 Jan 20;14(2):81-7
references: 14738728
references: Genetics. 2008 Apr;178(4):2413-6
references: 18430958
references: J Chem Ecol. 1985 Dec;11(12):1747-56
references: 24311338
references: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Apr 16;99(8):5664-8
references: 11960020
references: J Neurogenet. 1998 Nov;12(4):241-51
references: 10656111
references: Genes Brain Behav. 2004 Feb;3(1):39-50
references: 14960014
references: Trends Genet. 2001 Dec;17(12):719-26
references: 11718926
references: Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2000 Dec;10(6):790-5
references: 11240291
references: Proc Biol Sci. 2009 Dec 22;276(1677):4323-8
references: 19759037
references: Neuron. 1993 Aug;11(2):197-208
references: 8352940
references: C R Acad Sci III. 2001 Mar;324(3):219-27
references: 11291308
references: Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1991;625:540-4
references: 1905503
references: Curr Biol. 2007 Apr 3;17(7):624-9
references: 17350263
references: Am Nat. 2011 May;177(5):645-54
references: 21508610
references: J Neurosci. 2006 Aug 23;26(34):8727-33
references: 16928861
references: J Neurobiol. 2001 Dec;49(4):339-49
references: 11745669
references: Nat Rev Neurosci. 2003 Apr;4(4):266-75
references: 12671643
references: PLoS One. 2007 Oct 24;2(10):e1083
references: 17957265
references: Genetics. 2007 Mar;175(3):1197-212
references: 17151232
references: J Neurogenet. 2000 Apr;14(1):25-42
references: 10938546
references: Br J Anaesth. 2002 Jul;89(1):143-55
references: 12173226
references: J Neurogenet. 1995 Apr;10(1):1-13
references: 8618174
references: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Oct 16;109 Suppl 2:17174-9
references: 22802679
references: Neuron. 2005 Dec 22;48(6):965-76
references: 16364900
references: Fly (Austin). 2009 Jan-Mar;3(1):3-9
references: 19164943
references: Curr Biol. 2012 Feb 21;22(4):309-13
references: 22264604