A genetic polymorphism affecting reliance on personal versus public information in a spatial learning task in Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: Organisms that face behavioural challenges can use different types of information to guide their decisions. First, they can use the personal information they sample in their environment. Second, they can use the inadvertent social information provided by the behaviour of conspecifics or heterospecifics (i.e. public information). Currently, little is known about the interaction between genetic variation and the use of personal versus public information in natural populations. Here, we investigated whether a natural genetic polymorphism affects the use of personal versus public information in a spatial learning task in Drosophila melanogaster. We found that genetic variation at the foraging locus interacts with social context during spatial learning. While both allelic variants are able to u

SUBMITTER: Foucaud J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3652466 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature