A neuropeptide regulates fighting behavior in Drosophila melanogaster

• Published in: eLife Vol. 9
• Main Authors: Wu, Fengming, Deng, Bowen, Xiao, Na, Wang, Tao, Li, Yining, Wang, Rencong, Shi, Kai, Luo, Dong-Gen, Rao, Yi, Zhou, Chuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 21.04.2020; eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
• Subjects: Aggression; Aggression - physiology; Aggressive behavior; Aggressiveness; Amines; Animals; Behavior; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Biogenic amines; Brain; Calcium; Cholecystokinin; Drosophila melanogaster; Drosophila Proteins - metabolism; Electrophysiology; Epistasis; Female; Females; Fighting; Food; Genetic engineering; Insects; Male; Males; neural circuit; Neuromodulation; Neurons; Neurons - metabolism; neuropeptide; Neuropeptides; Neuropeptides - metabolism; Neuroscience; Peptides; Receptors, Cholecystokinin - metabolism; social hierarchy; neural circuit; social hierarchy; D. melanogaster; neuropeptide; neuroscience
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/elife.54229

Aggressive behavior is regulated by various neuromodulators such as neuropeptides and biogenic amines. Here we found that the neuropeptide ) modulates aggression in . Knock-out of or receptor reduced aggression. Activation and inactivation of Dsk-expressing neurons increased and decreased male aggressive behavior, respectively. Moreover, data from transsynaptic tracing, electrophysiology and behavioral epistasis reveal that Dsk-expressing neurons function downstream of a subset of P1 neurons ( ) to control fighting behavior. In addition, winners show increased calcium activity in Dsk-expressing neurons. Conditional overexpression of Dsk promotes social dominance, suggesting a positive correlation between Dsk signaling and winning effects. The mammalian ortholog CCK has been implicated in mammal aggression, thus our work suggests a conserved neuromodulatory system for the modulation of aggressive behavior.