Mechanosensory interactions drive collective behaviour in Drosophila.

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serval:BIB_B4523D83FB89
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Mechanosensory interactions drive collective behaviour in Drosophila.
Journal
Nature
Author(s)
Ramdya P., Lichocki P., Cruchet S., Frisch L., Tse W., Floreano D., Benton R.
ISSN
1476-4687 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0028-0836
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2015
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
519
Number
7542
Pages
233-236
Language
english
Abstract
Collective behaviour enhances environmental sensing and decision-making in groups of animals. Experimental and theoretical investigations of schooling fish, flocking birds and human crowds have demonstrated that simple interactions between individuals can explain emergent group dynamics. These findings indicate the existence of neural circuits that support distributed behaviours, but the molecular and cellular identities of relevant sensory pathways are unknown. Here we show that Drosophila melanogaster exhibits collective responses to an aversive odour: individual flies weakly avoid the stimulus, but groups show enhanced escape reactions. Using high-resolution behavioural tracking, computational simulations, genetic perturbations, neural silencing and optogenetic activation we demonstrate that this collective odour avoidance arises from cascades of appendage touch interactions between pairs of flies. Inter-fly touch sensing and collective behaviour require the activity of distal leg mechanosensory sensilla neurons and the mechanosensory channel NOMPC. Remarkably, through these inter-fly encounters, wild-type flies can elicit avoidance behaviour in mutant animals that cannot sense the odour--a basic form of communication. Our data highlight the unexpected importance of social context in the sensory responses of a solitary species and open the door to a neural-circuit-level understanding of collective behaviour in animal groups.
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
09/01/2015 10:23
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:22
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