scholarly journals Social hierarchy is established and maintained with distinct acts of aggression in male Drosophilamelanogaster

2020 ◽  
Vol 223 (24) ◽  
pp. jeb232439
Author(s):  
Jasper C. Simon ◽  
Ulrike Heberlein

ABSTRACTSocial interactions pivot on an animal's experiences, internal states and feedback from others. This complexity drives the need for precise descriptions of behavior to dissect the fine detail of its genetic and neural circuit bases. In laboratory assays, male Drosophila melanogaster reliably exhibit aggression, and its extent is generally measured by scoring lunges, a feature of aggression in which one male quickly thrusts onto his opponent. Here, we introduce an explicit approach to identify both the onset and reversals in hierarchical status between opponents and observe that distinct aggressive acts reproducibly precede, concur or follow the establishment of dominance. We find that lunges are insufficient for establishing dominance. Rather, lunges appear to reflect the dominant state of a male and help in maintaining his social status. Lastly, we characterize the recurring and escalating structure of aggression that emerges through subsequent reversals in dominance. Collectively, this work provides a framework for studying the complexity of agonistic interactions in male flies, enabling its neurogenetic basis to be understood with precision.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasper C. Simon ◽  
Ulrike Heberlein

ABSTRACTSocial interactions pivot on an animal’s experiences, internal states, and feedback from others. This complexity drives the need for precise descriptions of behavior to dissect the fine detail of its genetic and neural circuit bases. In laboratory assays, male Drosophila melanogaster reliably exhibit aggression, and its extent is generally measured by scoring lunges, a feature of aggression in which one male quickly thrusts onto his opponent. Here, we introduce an explicit approach to identify both the onset and reversals in hierarchical status among opponents and observe that distinct aggressive acts reproducibly precede, concur, or follow the establishment of dominance. We find that lunges are insufficient for establishing dominance. Rather, lunges appear to reflect the dominant state of a male and help in maintaining his social status. Lastly, we characterize the recurring and escalating structure of aggression that emerges through subsequent reversals in dominance. Collectively, this work provides a framework for studying the complexity of agonistic interactions in male flies enabling its neurogenetic basis to be understood with precision.


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (8) ◽  
pp. 1958-1963 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marijke Versteven ◽  
Lies Vanden Broeck ◽  
Bart Geurten ◽  
Liesbeth Zwarts ◽  
Lisse Decraecker ◽  
...  

Aggression is a universal social behavior important for the acquisition of food, mates, territory, and social status. Aggression inDrosophilais context-dependent and can thus be expected to involve inputs from multiple sensory modalities. Here, we use mechanical disruption and genetic approaches inDrosophila melanogasterto identify hearing as an important sensory modality in the context of intermale aggressive behavior. We demonstrate that neuronal silencing and targeted knockdown of hearing genes in the fly’s auditory organ elicit abnormal aggression. Further, we show that exposure to courtship or aggression song has opposite effects on aggression. Our data define the importance of hearing in the control ofDrosophilaintermale aggression and open perspectives to decipher how hearing and other sensory modalities are integrated at the neural circuit level.


2018 ◽  
pp. 114-131
Author(s):  
O. Yu. Bondarenko

his article explores theoretical and experimental approach to modeling social interactions. Communication and exchange of information with other people affect individual’s behavior in numerous areas. Generally, such influence is exerted by leaders, outstanding individuals who have a higher social status or expert knowledge. Social interactions are analyzed in the models of social learning, game theoretic models, conformity models, etc. However, there is a lack of formal models of asymmetric interactions. Such models could help elicit certain qualities characterizing higher social status and perception of status by other individuals, find the presence of leader influence and analyze its mechanism.


1980 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. Salter

Social interactions in walrus herds of mixed sex and age composition were recorded at a haul-out site on the east coast of Bathurst Island, N.W.T., during July–August 1977. Most walruses maintained body contact with at least one other walrus while hauled out on land; herds were usually circular in shape. Adult males, adult females, and immatures all displaced other walruses, and thus entered herds, by jabbing with the tusks. Dominance during agonistic interactions was related to relative tusk length and sex and age of interactants. Behaviour of walruses on land suggested an energetic advantage in mutual body contact, which would be maximized by occupation of interior positions within herds.


eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anamika Sharma ◽  
Gaiti Hasan

Innate behaviours, although robust and hard wired, rely on modulation of neuronal circuits, for eliciting an appropriate response according to internal states and external cues. Drosophila flight is one such innate behaviour that is modulated by intracellular calcium release through inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors (IP3Rs). Cellular mechanism(s) by which IP3Rs modulate neuronal function for specific behaviours remain speculative, in vertebrates and invertebrates. To address this, we generated an inducible dominant negative form of the IP3R (IP3RDN). Flies with neuronal expression of IP3RDN exhibit flight deficits. Expression of IP3RDN helped identify key flight-modulating dopaminergic neurons with axonal projections in the mushroom body. Flies with attenuated IP3Rs in these presynaptic dopaminergic neurons exhibit shortened flight bouts and a disinterest in seeking food, accompanied by reduced excitability and dopamine release upon cholinergic stimulation. Our findings suggest that the same neural circuit modulates the drive for food search and for undertaking longer flight bouts.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcin T. Górecki ◽  
Natalia Dziwińska

Abstract The aim of this study was to recognize features determining social hierarchy in Wrzosówka Polska ewes kept indoors as well as to investigate their resting place and companionship preferences. Observations (156 hours in total) were carried out in a group of 22 ewes. The social rank of sheep was determined by their age, body weight and length of horns. Social position was positively correlated with aggressive behaviour performed and negatively with aggressive behaviour received. Use of space while resting was influenced by ewe social behaviour; aggressive individuals lied more often in attractive places, namely against walls and fodder troughs compared to other animals. In general, the ewes rested by having physical contact with animals of similar rank and aggressiveness. Kinship appeared not to be important in neighbour preference. As can be concluded, social interactions influenced the use of space and neighbourhood in ewes


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daeeun Kim ◽  
JuYoung Kim ◽  
Hackjin Kim

Why would people conform more to others with higher social positions? People may place higher confidence in the opinions of those who rank higher in the social hierarchy, or they may wish to make better impressions on people of higher social status. We investigated how individual preferences for novel stimuli are influenced by the preferences of others in the social hierarchy and whether anonymity affects such preference changes. After manipulation of their social rank, participants were asked to indicate how much they liked or disliked a series of images. Then, they were shown the rating given to each image by a partner (either inferior or superior in social rank) and were given a chance to adjust their ratings. The participants were more likely to change their preferences to match those of a superior partner in the public vs. private condition. The tendency to conform to the views of the superior partner was stronger among those with higher social dominance orientation (SDO) and those with greater fear of negative evaluation (FNE) by others. Altogether, the findings suggest that the motivation to make better impressions on people of higher social status can be the major driver of conformity to others with higher social positions.


2019 ◽  
pp. 144-164
Author(s):  
D. W. Harding

The model of social structure in British prehistory still owes much to the legacy of Gordon Childe, for whom economic competition was the catalyst of social inequalities. Even from the Neolithic, however, control of land or stock would have conveyed status, and the construction of major works such as tombs or henges implies authority over labour and resources, even if it was religious rather than temporal. Classical sources indicated that late pre-Roman Iron Age society was stratified, but recent opinion has questioned how far back this extended into earlier prehistory. Using grave goods as a proxy for social status may be simplistic, though whether explained as possessions of the dead, debts repaid by dependents, dedications to deities or ancestors, or displays of communal wealth consumption, they surely indicate social complexity. Settlements in British prehistory or early historic archaeology seldom display clear evidence of social hierarchy, since social status was evidently not expressed in the same terms as in contemporary materialistic and capitalistic societies. Anthropological models of social development from simple communities to chiefdoms and state societies can now be seen as neither consistent nor uniform in progression.


Born to Write ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 3-9
Author(s):  
Neil Kenny

Families were fundamental to social hierarchy in early modern France. Birth was widely accepted to indicate one’s divinely ordained social status, even if that view was not universal—in practice, some freedom was allowed for individuals to improve their status (especially among certain social groups) or indeed to worsen it. Certainly, the relation of birth to social status varied. It had a changing history even in respect of the nobility, which could be entered by routes other than birth. But birth was primordial at all levels of society, and for the nobility it became even more so in France in the second half of the sixteenth century and in the seventeenth. It was widely believed that the members of a given noble family shared their own, generally superior, instantiation of human nature. On the other hand, heredity was widely believed to predispose commoners too in certain directions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 87 (S1) ◽  
pp. 144-147
Author(s):  
Susanne Waiblinger ◽  
Kathrin Wagner ◽  
Edna Hillmann ◽  
Kerstin Barth

AbstractThe aim of the study reported in this Research Communication was to compare play behaviour and social interactions of dairy calves either separated from their mother and reared in a calf group (Artificial) or with access to their mother and the cow herd (cow-calf contact: Contact). Contact calves had access to a calf area and also to the cow barn where they could suckle their dam. Artificial calves were fed whole milk up to 16 kg per day via an automatic milk feeder and were only kept in the calf area. We observed the animals on 3 d during the first three months of life. Contact calves showed solitary play, consisting predominantly of locomotor play, for longer than Artificial calves and mainly in the cow barn. This indicates higher welfare in Contact calves. In addition, Artificial calves hardly experienced any agonistic interaction, while Contact calves both initiated and received agonistic interactions, which might contribute to the development of higher social competence.


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