title: Comparative analysis of the brain transcriptome in a hyper-aggressive fruit fly, Drosophila prolongata.
abstract: Aggressive behavior is observed in many animals, but its intensity differs between species. In a model animal of genetics, Drosophila melanogaster, genetic basis of aggressive behavior has been studied intensively, including transcriptome analyses to identify genes whose expression level was associated with intra-species variation in aggressiveness. However, whether these genes are also involved in the evolution of aggressiveness among different species has not been examined. In this study, we performed de novo transcriptome analysis in the brain of Drosophila prolongata to identify genes associated with the evolution of aggressiveness. Males of D. prolongata were hyper-aggressive compared with closely related species. Comparison of the brain transcriptomes identified 21 differentially expressed genes in males of D. prolongata. They did not overlap with the list of aggression-related genes identified in D. melanogaster, suggesting that genes involved in the evolution of aggressiveness were independent of those associated with the intra-species variation in aggressiveness in Drosophila. Although females of D. prolongata were not aggressive as the males, expression levels of the 21 genes identified in this study were more similar between sexes than between species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Biology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Ayumi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kudo
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Japan; Department of Basic Biology, Faculty of Life Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Okazaki, Japan.
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shigenobu
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kadota
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Japan.
authors.forename: Masafumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nozawa
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoko F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Biology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yukio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Biology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address: matsuo@utlae.org.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsuo
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D004330:Drosophila / Q000378:metabolism*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents / Q000235:genetics; D012737:Sex Factors; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents
keywords: Gene expression levels; Inter-species comparison; RNA-seq analysis; de novo transcriptome analysis