By Nicole Garneau, PhD
If you are a fan of Shakespeare you will have recognized this
quote from Macbeth. If you are a fan of Bradbury you will have
recognized this from his 1962 novel of the same name. Either way,
the theme is clear--a storm brings conflicting natures. In the case
of Bradbury it was the classic good vs. evil. In the case of the
opening day of the annual meeting of the Association for
Chemoreception Sciences, it was closer to the theme of masculinity
in Macbeth- a case of survival. "Everything that happens before
death is what counts." (quote from Bradbury's novel)
Here was the scene as a turbulent storm descended upon our hotel
just as the meeting was set to open its welcome banquet, and what
truly was the catalyst for my tangent into literature. Who knew it
would end up fitting so nicely with the opening talk "Neural
Control of Aggression" in the model organism of the fruit fly,
which the catchy tag line "The Paradox of Sex and Violence."
What?!? Am I at the wrong science conference (or as my sister Alex
calls them "Nerd Conferences")? What in the world does this have to
do with sensory perception?
It turns out, quite a bit, and it comes down to survival. Fruit
flies, like many other invertebrates and vertebrates cue into
pheromone sensing not only to find attract and court mates, but
also to ward off competitors using some serious aggression and
violence. Our speaker, Dr. Anderson of the California Institute of
Technology, shared these crazy videos, taken at 500 frames per
second of male fruit fly aggression. (Dr. Anderson and/or
collaborators, if you are out there please put these videos on
Vimeo for us all to be wowed by and I will link to it!). My
favorite, this one deemed "Lucha libre!" for the impressive body
flip and slam of one fly by the other.
Researchers know that aggression is increased in environments with
lots of males flies, but also that there are sensory receptors for
pheromones that play a role. In fact scientists figured out the
genetic component by making a strain of "Rottweiler" fruit fly that
has hyper aggressive males. The point being, behavior has to do
with both genetics and an individual's social experience
(environment), and researchers are now trying to understand the
actual process from perception to brain to behavior that is
occurring in this model organism.
Long story short- they manipulate both environment and genetics in
order to find the answer. And isn't it just like the scientific
process to help us find one thing out only to realize it actually
led to more questions. So they started with one gene Cyp6a20 which
is the instructions for the body to make one of these pheromone
receptors. Next they determined exactly what chemical ligand bound
this receptor, cVA. Next up, what behavior happens when the ligand
and receptor come together in a crowded environment? The answer is
increased aggression. The more cVA, the more aggression. Mess with
the receptor using genetic manipulation so that the flies can no
longer perceive cVA, and bang, no more aggression. The crazy thing,
aggression and courting might occur through "multiplex circuit"
which means the same neurons and brain pathways are responsible for
both behaviors.
I'm going to hugely extrapolate this basic science into the world
of humans, so take the rest of this with a grain of salt. How can
this help us if it turns out a similar process happens in male
humans say during riots following March Madness losses? What if
instead of mace and smoke bombs and violence, police were able to
spray a non toxic chemical into an aggressive crowd, and this
chemical then interfered with detection of pheromones linked to
aggressive behaviors, thus decreasing overall violent tendencies in
a specific environment at a specific and high need time? As long as
it wasn't harmful, it wasn't long lasting, and it didn't interfere
with ability to court, would we go for it if it meant potentially
saving people and property from group aggression?
I'll leave you with that thought and allude back to literature and
the question of conflicting nature (however you want to call it:
Shakespeare and Bradbury's good vs evil, E J James' light vs dark,
or Dr. Anderson's paradox of sex and violence). Just how different
are we from fruit flies?
Enough for tonight, but check out tomorrow's post, likely
to include something about the crazy way beliefs and expectations
on your response to taste and flavor (e.g. If I tell you something
is healthy, you think it tastes worse than if I told you it was a
treat.)
Cool stuff, signing off until then.
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