Data from: A genetic polymorphism affecting reliance on personal versus public information in a spatial learning task in Drosophila melanogaster

Organisms that face behavioural challenges can use different types of information to guide their decisions. First, they can use the personal information they sample in their environment. Second, they can use the inadvertent social information provided by the behaviour of conspecifics or heterospecifics (i.e. public information). Currently, little is known about the interaction between genetic variation and the use of personal versus public information in natural populations. Here, we investigated whether a natural genetic polymorphism affects the use of personal versus public information in a spatial learning task in Drosophila melanogaster. We found that genetic variation at the foraging locus interacts with social context during spatial learning. While both allelic variants are able to use personal and public information to improve their navigation during 10 training trials, a probe trial revealed that individuals carrying the forR (rover) allele rely mainly on personal information, whereas individuals carrying the fors (sitter) allele either use or display more public information than rovers. Accordingly, transfer of social information is more important in groups of sitters than in groups of rovers. These results suggest that a positive feedback loop can occur between alleles promoting group living, such as fors, and the use and/or display of public information, ultimately providing the opportunity for the joint evolution of sociality and cultural traits.

遭遇行为挑战的生物可通过多类信息指导决策：其一，利用自身在环境中采样所得的个人信息；其二，利用同种个体（conspecifics）或异种个体（heterospecifics）的行为无意间传递的社交信息，即公共信息（public information）。目前，学界对自然种群中遗传变异与个人信息、公共信息使用偏好间的交互作用仍知之甚少。本研究以黑腹果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）为实验对象，探究其自然遗传多态性是否会影响其在空间学习任务中对个人信息与公共信息的使用选择。研究发现，觅食基因座（foraging locus）上的遗传变异会在空间学习过程中与社交环境产生交互作用。尽管两种等位基因均可通过10次训练试次（training trial）利用个人与公共信息优化导航表现，但探测试次（probe trial）结果显示：携带罗弗（forR, rover）等位基因的个体主要依赖个人信息，而携带 sitter（fors, sitter）等位基因的个体则比罗弗型个体更多地使用或展示公共信息。据此可知，社交信息传递在 sitter 型个体组成的群体中比罗弗型群体更为关键。上述结果表明，促进群体生活的等位基因（如fors）与公共信息的使用及/或展示之间可能存在正反馈循环（positive feedback loop），最终为社会性（sociality）与文化性状（cultural traits）的协同演化提供了潜在可能。