Fruit fly bouts show gender-specific styles

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 09:17:52 -0400

Fighting like a girl or fighting like a boy is hardwired into fruit fly neurons, according to a study in the Nov. 19 Nature Neuroscience advance online publication by a research team from Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna. The results confirm that a gene known as "fruitless" is a key factor underlying sexual differences in behavior. The findings mark a milestone in an unlikely new animal model for understanding the biology of aggression and how the nervous system gives rise to different behaviors.

The fruit fly fight club

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:17:08 -0400

Fruit flies fight. The males will go after each other, fighting to establish dominance. Edward Kravitz, the George Packer Berry professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, is using the fighting fruit fly model system to explore the neurobiology of aggression. Previously Kravitz has used fighting lobsters to study changes in the brain that occur after fights. While it may sound fanciful, Kravitz's work is serious. "Aggression is a serious problem in society, but even after studies of lots of animal models for many years, we don't know a lot about the biological basis of aggression," Kravitz said.

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Fruit fly bouts show gender-specific styles

The fruit fly fight club