Microarray analysis of male flies selected for increased aggressive behavior

We generated 4 separate subpopulations of selected flies from 1 starting population of a mixture of Canton-S flies. Two of the populations (AggrI and AggrII) were selected for increased aggression by picking males from a population cage that engaged in the most intense fighting (known as escalation behavior). Thirty males were selected every generation (from a total of 120 males per cage) per line and mated with random virgin females from that same generation. Two control populations (NeutrI and NeutrII) were selected by picking random males from the population cage after 15-30 aggressive males were removed. After 21 generations of selection males from the Aggr lines were dramatically more aggressive than males from the Neutr lines. The Neutr lines did not significantly differ from the starting population although a trend of decreased aggression was visible. Keywords: selection for male aggression Four populations were analyzed. Two were selected for increased aggression and two were reference groups, selected for a decrease but with no significant effect.