BIO

My name is Carys Delahanty and I am a sophomore majoring in Exercise Physiology from Atlanta, Georgia. I have been a part of the Hughes Fly Lab since January as a research assistant for the data analyzation portion of this lab. I look forward to getting involved in more research lab's in my future relating to microbiology, genetics, or biomedical research as those are my primary research interests. My postgraduate plans include attending medical school to become a doctor and hopefully being able to travel and work in places where medical care is unaccessibl

Evolutionary Constraints Associated with Color and Aggression in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

One long standing question in evolutionary biology is whether single genes that control multiple traits (pleiotropy) result in limitations on adaptive evolution. If it does, then our ability to predict adaptation (e.g., in the face of changing environments) is compromised. We are using a much-discussed correlation between body coloration and aggressive behavior as a system to address this question. In Drosophila, this correlation is possibly attributed to dopamine being a precursor to melanin production. Higher melanin production would then result in less free dopamine, possibly resulting in more aggressive behaviors. To test the prediction that darker individuals were more aggressive, we selected for darker and lighter flies (D. melanogaster) and periodically tested for aggressive behavior. Every 5 generations, we tested for aggression and photographed each individual. We used ImageJ to measure the color of the thorax of the fly. We found that the darker flies are more aggressive, suggesting a pleiotropic effect. Our results suggest that dark-selected flies evolved to be more aggressive. The next step in this study is to identify candidate genes underlying the correlation and test for pleiotropic effects using transgenic approaches.

Keywords: fruit flies, evolution, pleiotropy, genetics, color