Sex-specific effects of social environment on behaviour and their
correlations in Drosophila melanogaster
Abstract
Environmental and individual experiences can result in immediate and
persistent changes in behaviour. Often, such effects are also
sex-dependent. Interspecific interactions can be one of the most
important environments an individual faces. Such social interactions are
expected to affect a suite of behavioural traits and their correlations.
Here, we used Drosophila melanogaster and high-throughput automated
behavioural phenotyping to determine how social environment (group mixed
sex, group single sex, and social isolation) and sex interact to affect
basic behaviours (exploration, movement within a y-maze, and habituation
to a startle) that likely underlie more complex behaviours such as mate
searching and foraging. We show that such behaviours and some
behavioural correlations are indeed context- and sex-dependent. Males
tended to show greater exploration, while females were more likely to
show a habituation response to startle. Males and females from the mixed
sex and isolated treatments showed opposite exploratory behaviour in the
Y-maze, and social treatment interacted with sex to affect the rate of
habituation to a startle. Females also tended to have slightly stronger
trait correlations compared to males. These results show that social
environment and sex can play a significant role in shaping behaviour in
Drosophila melanogaster. Our study provides insights into how the type
of social stimulation and sex can interact to affect behaviours that are
important in forming critical behaviours related to foraging and mate
searching.