Study

Curated
Zwarts et al., 2015
The genetic basis of natural variation in mushroom body size in Drosophila melanogaster
[10.1038/ncomms10115][FBrf0230412]

Description

The mammalian cerebral cortex and the insect mushroom bodies (MBs) are key higher-order brain centers for the integration and processing of sensory information. The size of the cerebral cortex and the MBs has been regarded as a proxy for cognitive ability and behavioral plasticity. Here the authors mapped variants affecting natural variation in mushroom body morphology and identified 139 genes and 39 transcription factors with effects on development and adult plasticity. They also showed correlations between morphology and aggression, sleep, and lifespan.

Comments from curator

Phenotyping data can be downloaded from the Supplementary Data 1 file found in the Supplementary information section.

The authors also compared their phenotypes, with phenotypes from other studies: aggressive behaviour, copulation latency, fitness, startle response, ethanol resistance, starvation resistance, lifespan, chill coma recovery and sleep traits (Harbison et al., 2013) (Ayroles et al., 2009) (Morozova et al., 2009)

Of note: We added a "Normal" phenotype to complete the ratio of abnormal traits, for each DGRP.
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