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The genetic basis of diurnal preference in Drosophila melanogaster

ABSTRACT: Most animals restrict their activity to specific part of the day, being either diurnal, nocturnal, or crepuscular. The genetic basis underlying this diurnal preference is largely unknown. Under laboratory conditions, Drosophila melanogaster is crepuscular, showing a bi-modal activity profile. However, recent experiments in our lab indicated that high variability among individuals exist, particularly in strains that derive from different wild populations. By assembling together flies from various geographical strains, we have generated a highly diverse population whose progeny exhibited extreme diurnal preference, including diurnal and nocturnal flies. We have used this population as a starting point for an artificial selection experiment in which we selected males that show the most extreme diurnal preference and mated them to their sisters. The response to selection was strong, and already after 10 selection cycles we obtained highly diurnal (D) and nocturnal (N) strains. Another strain that was not selected and showed intermediate behaviour (crepuscular) served as a control (C). These strains provide us with a unique opportunity to understand the genetics of diurnal preference.

ORGANISM(S): Drosophila melanogaster

PROVIDER: GSE116985 | GEO | 2020/08/17

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:The collaborative cross (CC) founder strains include five classical inbred laboratory strains (129S1/SvlmJ, A/J, C57BL/6J (B6), NOD/ShiLtJ, and NZO/HILtJ) and three wild-derived strains (CAST/EiJ, PWK/PhJ (PWK) and WSB/EiJ) The strains encompass 89% of the genetic diversity available in Mus musculus and about 10 to 20 times more genetic diversity than found in Homo sapiens. For more than 60 years the B6 strain has been used as the model strain for high ethanol preference/high consumption. However, another one of the CC founder strains, PWK, was identified as a high ethanol preference/high consumption strain. The current study determined how the transcriptomes of the B6 and PWK strains differed from the 6 low preference CC strains across 3 nodes of the brain addiction circuit. RNA-Seq data were collected from the central nucleus of the amygdala, the nucleus accumbens core and the prelimbic cortex. Differential expression (DE) analysis was performed in each of these brain regions for all 28 possible pairwise comparisons of the CC founder strains. Unique genes for each strain were identified by selecting for genes that differed significantly (false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05) from all other strains in the same direction. B6 was identified as the most distinct inbred laboratory strain, having the highest number of total differently expressed genes (DEGs) and DEGs with high log fold change, and unique genes compared to other CC strains. Less than 50 unique DEGs were identified in common between B6 and PWK within all three brain regions, indicating the strains potentially represent two distinct genetic signatures for risk for high ethanol-preference. 238 DEGs were found to be commonly different between B6, PWK and the average expression of the remaining CC strains within all three regions. The commonly different up-expressed genes were significantly enriched (FDR < 0.001) among genes associated with neuroimmune function. These data compliment the observation that neuroimmune signaling is key to understanding alcohol use disorder and and support use of these 8 strains and the highly heterogeneous mouse populations derived from them to identify alcohol-related brain mechanisms and treatment targets.

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The genetic basis of diurnal preference in Drosophila melanogaster

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