9 research outputs found

    Social environment mediates cancer progression in Drosophila

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    The influence of oncogenic phenomena on the ecology and evolution of animal species is becoming an important research topic. Similar to host–pathogen interactions, cancer negatively affects host fitness, which should lead to the selection of host control mechanisms, including behavioral traits that best minimize the proliferation of malignant cells. Social behavior is suggested to influence tumor progression. While the ecological benefits of sociality in gregarious species are widely acknowledged, only limited data are available on the role of the social environment on cancer progression. Here, we exposed adult Drosophila, with colorectal-like tumors, to different social environments. We show how subtle variations in social structure have dramatic effects on the progression of tumor growth. Finally, we reveal that flies can discriminate between individuals at different stages of tumor development and selectively choose their social environment accordingly. Our study demonstrates the reciprocal links between cancer and social interactions and how sociality may impact health and fitness in animals and its potential implications for disease ecology.This work was supported by the ANR (Blanc project EVOCAN to F.T. and project DROSONET to F.M. and C.S.), the CNRS (INEE and INSB), Fondation ARC (1555286 to J.M. and F.M.), The French league against Cancer (M27218 to J.M.), IDEEV program (to F.M.), by an International Associated Laboratory Project France/Australia, by the French-Australian Science Innovation Collaboration Program Early Career Fellowship (B.U.), by AndrĂ© Hoffmann (Fondation MAVA), Fyssen Foundation (to F.M. and E.H. D.) and the French Government (fellowship 2015–155 to M.D.)

    Natural variation in sociability among Drosophila melanogaster

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    Sociability – an individual’s propensity to engage in group activities – is a conserved trait throughout most of life. Sociability can be considered as a personality type in humans when showing correlated sociability measures across different assays. Our knowledge of the mechanisms that drive sociability and explain its inter-individual variation is still limited. To enhance our mechanistic understanding, the genetically tractable Drosophila melanogaster is increasingly being used as a model for research on social behaviour. High and low sociability phenotypes, indicative of a variation of sociability levels among the population have been documented in this species. However, sociability traits have been measured through unidimensional assays, which do not allow us to assess whether sociability is a personality type in fruit flies. Here, we present a multidimensional approach to assess sociability, using a combination of three behavioural assays that each captures a different functional feature of social interactions in D.melanogaster. We applied our approach to the Drosophila melanogaster Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP) lines and revealed continuous variation in the strength of response to others. We found that sociability levels varied between genetically distinct lines, indicative of a genetic component of sociability.The three sociability traits were, however, not correlated, making it questionable whether sociability can be considered a personality type in D. melanogaster

    Natural variation in sociability among <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i>

    No full text
    Sociability – an individual’s propensity to engage in group activities – is a conserved trait throughout most of life. Sociability can be considered as a personality type in humans when showing correlated sociability measures across different assays. Our knowledge of the mechanisms that drive sociability and explain its inter-individual variation is still limited. To enhance our mechanistic understanding, the genetically tractable Drosophila melanogaster is increasingly being used as a model for research on social behaviour. High and low sociability phenotypes, indicative of a variation of sociability levels among the population have been documented in this species. However, sociability traits have been measured through unidimensional assays, which do not allow us to assess whether sociability is a personality type in fruit flies. Here, we present a multidimensional approach to assess sociability, using a combination of three behavioural assays that each captures a different functional feature of social interactions in D.melanogaster. We applied our approach to the Drosophila melanogaster Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP) lines and revealed continuous variation in the strength of response to others. We found that sociability levels varied between genetically distinct lines, indicative of a genetic component of sociability.The three sociability traits were, however, not correlated, making it questionable whether sociability can be considered a personality type in D. melanogaster

    Replication Data for: Social modulation of oogenesis and egg-laying in Drosophila melanogaster

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    The dataset contains all the raw data and R-script used to produce the figures in the paper. The Excel document named ‘Raw data.xlsx’ contains the raw data and is composed of one Excel sheet per figure. The three documents ‘deseq2.txt’ contain the three gene expression analysis result of the RNA sequencing (alone vs methoprene, grouped vs methoprene, alone vs grouped). The 'RNAseq_sample_overview.txt' document and the Excel document named ‘Count matrix.xlsx’ respectively include the RNAseq library information and the read count table of the RNA sequencing. WGCNA_modules.zip includes a total of 20 files (one file per identified gene module) and lists the genes that were assigned to the respective module. Two R-scripts are also provided, one for the RNA sequencing analyses and the other one for all the other raw data of the paper
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