Measuring the repertoire of age-related behavioral changes in Drosophila melanogaster.

Publication Year
2022

Type

Journal Article
Abstract

Aging affects almost all aspects of an organism-its morphology, its physiology, its behavior. Isolating which biological mechanisms are regulating these changes, however, has proven difficult, potentially due to our inability to characterize the full repertoire of an animal's behavior across the lifespan. Using data from fruit flies (D. melanogaster) we measure the full repertoire of behaviors as a function of age. We observe a sexually dimorphic pattern of changes in the behavioral repertoire during aging. Although the stereotypy of the behaviors and the complexity of the repertoire overall remains relatively unchanged, we find evidence that the observed alterations in behavior can be explained by changing the fly's overall energy budget, suggesting potential connections between metabolism, aging, and behavior.

Journal
PLoS Comput Biol
Volume
18
Issue
2
Pages
e1009867
Date Published
2022 Feb
ISSN Number
1553-7358
Alternate Journal
PLoS Comput Biol
PMCID
PMC8903287
PMID
35202388