Yost Ryley T, Scott Andrew M, Kurbaj Judy M, Walshe-Roussel Brendan, Dukas Reuven, Simon Anne F
Department of Biology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
St Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
R Soc Open Sci. 2024 Jul 31;11(7):240604. doi: 10.1098/rsos.240604. eCollection 2024 Jul.
Social isolation causes profound changes in social behaviour in a variety of species. However, the genetic and molecular mechanisms modulating behavioural responses to social isolation and social recovery remain to be elucidated. Here, we quantified the behavioural response of vinegar flies to social isolation using two distinct protocols (social space preference and sociability, the spontaneous tendencies to form groups). We found that social isolation increased social space and reduced sociability. These effects of social isolation were reversible and could be reduced after 3 days of group housing. Flies with a loss of function of (orthologue of autism-related genes) with known increased social space in a socially enriched environment were still able to recover from social isolation. We also show that dopamine (DA) is needed for a response to social isolation and recovery in males but not in females. Furthermore, only in males, DA levels are reduced after isolation and are not recovered after group housing. Finally, in socially enriched flies mutant for , DA levels are reduced in males, but not in females. We propose a model to explain how DA and are involved in the behavioural response to social isolation and its recovery in a dynamic and sex-specific manner.
社会隔离会导致多种物种的社会行为发生深刻变化。然而，调节对社会隔离和社会恢复行为反应的遗传和分子机制仍有待阐明。在此，我们使用两种不同的方案（社会空间偏好和社交性，即形成群体的自发倾向）量化了果蝇对社会隔离的行为反应。我们发现社会隔离增加了社会空间并降低了社交性。社会隔离的这些影响是可逆的，在群居3天后可以减轻。在社会丰富环境中已知社会空间增加的（自闭症相关基因的直系同源基因）功能丧失的果蝇仍能够从社会隔离中恢复。我们还表明，多巴胺（DA）是雄性对社会隔离和恢复做出反应所必需的，而雌性则不然。此外，仅在雄性中，隔离后DA水平降低，群居后也不会恢复。最后，在社会丰富的果蝇中，对于突变体，雄性的DA水平降低，而雌性则不然。我们提出了一个模型来解释DA和如何以动态和性别特异性的方式参与对社会隔离及其恢复的行为反应。
