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World's first ‘behavior transplant’ between species achieved | Scientists have transferred a courtship behavior from two fly species, triggering the recipient to perform this completely foreign act as if it was its own.
In a breakthrough study, scientists have transferred a courtship behavior from one species to another, triggering the recipient to perform this completely foreign act as if it was its own. While genes have been swapped between species to influence traits, a totally unknown behavior has never been…
Nagoya University researchers achieved this remarkable feat by manipulating a single gene to create new neural connections and transfer behavior between two distinct fruit flies, Drosophila subobscura and D. melanogaster. It’s the culmination of nearly a decade’s work by several members of the Japanese team, including co-first author Ryoya Tanaka, who in 2017 led a study mapping and comparing the mating circuits of the two fly species – D. melanogaster, which courts by singing, and D. subobscura, which regurgitates food as a romantic gesture ("gift-giving"). "We’ve shown how we can trace complex behaviors like nuptial gift-giving back to their genetic roots to understand how evolution creates entirely new strategies that help species survive and reproduce," said senior author Daisuke Yamamoto from NICT.
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