Genetic analysis of behavior in Drosophila
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Animal Behavior, Genetics, Neuroscience, Zoology
- Keywords
- neurobiology, Insect, neuromodulator, spontaneity, operant
- Copyright
- © 2016 Brembs
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2016. Genetic analysis of behavior in Drosophila. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2491v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2491v1
Abstract
The main function of brains is to generate adaptive behavior. Far from being the stereotypical, robot-like insect, the fruit fly Drosophila exhibits astounding flexibility and chooses different courses of actions even under identical external circumstances. Due to the power of genetics, we now are beginning to understand the neuronal mechanisms underlying this behavioral flexibility. Interestingly, the evidence from studies of disparate behaviors converges on common organizational principles common to many if not all behaviors, such as modified sensory processing, involvement of biogenic amines in network remodeling, ongoing activity and modulation by feedback. Seemingly foreseeing these recent insights, already the first research fields in Drosophila behavioral neurogenetics reflected this constant negotiation between internal and external demands on the animal as the common mechanism underlying adaptive behavioral choice in Drosophila.
Author Comment
This document contains the text submitted as a chapter of a book project.