Data from: Genetic variation in social environment construction influences the development of aggressive behavior in Drosophila melanogaster

Individuals are not merely subject to their social environments; they choose and create them, through a process called social environment (or social niche) construction. When genotypes differ in social environment-constructing behaviors, different genotypes are expected to experience different social environments. As social experience often affects behavioral development, quantitative genetics and psychology theories predict that genetic variation in social environment construction should have an important role in determining phenotypic variation; however, this hypothesis has not been tested directly. I identify multiple mechanisms of social environment construction that differ among natural genotypes of Drosophila melanogaster and investigate their consequences for the development of aggressive behavior. Male genotypes differed in the group sizes that they preferred and in their aggressive behavior; both of these behaviors influenced social experience, demonstrating that these behaviors function as social environment-constructing traits. Further, the effects of social experience—as determined in part by social environment construction—carried over to affect focal male aggression at a later time and with a new opponent. These results provide manipulative experimental support for longstanding hypotheses in psychology, that genetic variation in social environment construction has a causal role in behavioral development. More broadly, these results imply that studies of the genetic basis of complex traits should be expanded to include mechanisms by which genetic variation shapes the environments that individuals experience.个体并非被动受制于自身所处的社会环境，而是可通过名为社会环境构建（social environment construction，亦称社会生态位构建（social niche construction））的过程主动选择并塑造自身的社会环境。当不同基因型在社会环境构建行为上存在差异时，不同基因型个体所经历的社会环境也会有所区别。鉴于社会经历通常会影响行为发育，数量遗传学与心理学理论均预测：社会环境构建过程中的遗传变异，对表型变异的形成具有重要作用；然而该假说尚未得到直接实验验证。本研究明确了黑腹果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）不同自然基因型所具备的多种社会环境构建机制，并探究了这些机制对攻击行为发育的影响。研究发现，雄性果蝇的不同基因型在其偏好的群体规模与自身攻击行为上均存在差异；这两类行为均会对社会经历产生影响，证明它们可作为社会环境构建性状发挥功能。此外，部分由社会环境构建所决定的社会经历效应，会延续至后续实验阶段，影响焦点雄性果蝇在面对新对手时的攻击行为。本研究结果为心理学领域的长期假说提供了操控性实验支撑：社会环境构建过程中的遗传变异，对行为发育具有因果性作用。从更广泛的视角来看，本研究结果表明，针对复杂性状遗传基础的研究，应当拓展至涵盖遗传变异如何塑造个体所经历的环境的相关机制。