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The function of environmentally-sensitive genes on Drosophila wing expansion behavior
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Resumo(s)
The molecular and neural mechanisms underlying the translation of physical confinement to internal state changes and how these alter behavior are poorly understood and very difficult to study in natural settings due to an excessive number of possible confounding factors. Innate behaviors–such as wing expansion behavior in Drosophila–are complex, genetically-encoded behaviors with a predictable sequence, providing a unique window to study the effects of spatial confinement on behavior. Typically, wing expansion behavior is completed within 30 minutes when animals eclose in unconfined conditions, yet it can be delayed for hours in a confined environment by mechanisms that are not completely understood. By chance, a background mutation we named won’t expand confined (wexc) was found segregating in Drosophila stocks in which wing expansion is compromised specifically under confinement, not under unconfined conditions, providing a unique entrance into the molecular and neural underpinnings of confinement-induced behavioral control. Unpublished transcriptomic and RNA interference screens from our lab identified Eclosion hormone (Eh) as a candidate gene downregulated in wexc animals and required for wing expansion under confinement in non-wexc backgrounds. Together, these results suggested that Eh could be mutated in wexc and causally linked to its phenotype. Sequencing of Eh in wexc flies revealed a potential regulatory mutation (a single nucleotide insertion upstream of Eh) not found in control flies, further supporting this hypothesis, although additional studies are needed to certify causality. In parallel, functional manipulation of 5 other genes that were either up or downregulated with wing expansion revealed no causal relationship between them and this behavior under confinement. Finally, a small survey of the wexc phenotype across Drosophilidae revealed that no expansion under confinement appears to be the ancestral trait, whereas a greater tolerance for confinement might have evolved more recently in the cosmopolitan species, D. melanogaster and D. simulans.
Descrição
Tese de mestrado, Biologia Molecular e Genética , 2025, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências
Palavras-chave
Drosophila melanogaster innate behavior wing expansion confinement eclosion hormone