The Drosonet Project:
Understanding the link
between individual behavior and population organization and functioning has
long been central in ecology and evolutionary biology. Behavior is a response to intrinsic and
extrinsic factors including individual state, ecological factors or social
interactions. Within a group each individual can be seen as part of a network
of social interactions varying in strength, type and dynamic. The structure of
this network can deeply impact the ecology and evolution of individuals,
populations and species. Within a group social transmission of behavior can
take many forms and may deeply affect individual’s fitness. Social learning has
been studied mostly in fish, birds and mammals including humans. In insects,
social learning has been unambiguously demonstrated in social Hymenoptera but
this probably reflects limited research effort and recent evidence show that
even non-eusocial insects such as Drosophila
can copy the behavior of others. Compared to individual learning, which
requires a trial and error period in every generation, social learning can
potentially result in stable transmission of behavior across generations,
leading in some species to cultural tradition. Despite the potential importance
of social transmission on animal behavior relatively little is known about the
processes which may facilitates or prevent this transmission and the
relationship between social network structure and efficiency of social
transmission. The goal of this
project is to study the genetic and socio-environmental factors affecting
social transmission with the integration of experimental approach and social
network analysis. Both will be synthesized in a hierarchical modeling approach
allowing predictions on the pattern of social information flow based on the
social network structure. More specifically DrosoNet focuses on the mechanisms
of information transfers that generate social learning. The originality of
the program is to integrate complementary approaches (behavioral and social)
devoted traditionally to very distinct biological models characterized by
strongly divergent group organizations. This approach can help us identify
patterns of social interaction (including how they change with time) that can
lay the foundation for understanding key components of social transmission, in
order to understand at a global scale the emergence of tradition ?.
Using Drosophila as an experimental model
system the project will investigate (1)
how the structure of a group affects social transmission; (2) how individuals
treat different source of information (in particular personal vs. social
information), and (3) the genetic bases of social learning ability. Importantly
we aim to understand whether a relationship between social network structures
and dynamic can reflect the efficiency of social transmission, i.e. can we use
social network analysis in order to predict social transmission of information
and ultimately the evolutionary trajectory of a group?