Abstract
The ability to move is essential for many behavioural traits closely related to fitness. Here we studied the effect of inbreeding on locomotor activity (LA) of Drosophila melanogaster at different ages under both dark and light regimes. We expected to find a decreased LA in inbred lines compared to control lines. We also predicted an increased differentiation between lines due to inbreeding. LA was higher in the dark compared to the light regime for both inbred and outbred control lines. As expected, inbreeding increased phenotypic variance in LA, with some inbred lines showing higher and some lower LA than control lines. Moreover, age per se did not affect LA neither in control nor in inbred lines, while we found a strong line by age interaction between inbred lines. Interestingly, inbreeding changed the daily activity pattern of the flies: these patterns were consistent across all control lines but were lost in some inbred lines. The departure in the daily pattern of LA in inbred lines may contribute to the inbreeding depression observed in inbred natural populations.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Doth Andersen for technical assistance. We also would like to thank Janneke Wit for helpful comments on the manuscript. The Faculty of Science and Technology, Aarhus University supported the PhD project of TM and we wish to thank the Danish Natural Science Research Council for financial support to VL and CP (Grant Numbers: #21-01-0526, #21-03-0125 and 95095995) and AK (Grant Number: #0602-01916B).
Conflict of Interest
Tommaso Manenti, Cino Pertoldi, Neda Nasiri, Mads Fristrup Schou, Anders Kjærsgaard, Sandro Cavicchi, and Volker Loeschcke declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Manenti, T., Pertoldi, C., Nasiri, N. et al. Inbreeding Affects Locomotor Activity in Drosophila melanogaster at Different Ages. Behav Genet 45, 127–134 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-014-9683-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-014-9683-5