Viral infection causes sex-specific changes in fruit fly social aggregation behaviour.

ABSTRACT: Host behavioural changes following infection are common and could be important determinants of host behavioural competence to transmit pathogens. Identifying potential sources of variation in sickness behaviours is therefore central to our understanding of disease transmission. Here, we test how group social aggregation and individual locomotor activity vary between different genotypes of male and female fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) following septic infection with Drosophila C virus (DCV). We find genetic-based variation in both locomotor activity and social aggregation, but we did not detect an effect of DCV infection on fly activity or sleep patterns within the initial days following infection. However, DCV infection caused sex-specific effects on social aggregatio

SUBMITTER: Siva-Jothy JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6769139 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature