FLICKR, JOE JIMBO
Adult male Drosophila melanogaster exhibit elevated levels of aggression in the presence of mating partners, though prior exposure to females can suppress aggressive behaviors, according to a study out today (November 17) in Nature Neuroscience. Yuh Nung Jan and colleagues from the University of California, San Francisco, suggest that male fruit flies’ prior experiences can modulate aggression through the inhibition of GABAergic neurons.
Jan’s team found that female-naïve male flies were more aggressive toward one another in the presence of virgin females than males that had previously been housed with females. “Prior contact with females strongly modified the subsequent behavioral choice of males and markedly suppressed this sex-related male-male aggression,” the researchers wrote. Using both behavioral and anatomical approaches, “we identified the GABAergic system as a candidate for regulating aggression in flies,” they added.
FLICKR, MIKE BAIRDStudying a variety of scorpion species from both desert and humid environments, researchers at Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos (CIBIO) in Vairão, Portugal, found that scorpions exhibit different defensive behaviors depending on the attack circumstances, either using their powerful pincers, venomous stingers, or both when cornered or apprehended by a predator.
