Diet and aggression in male Drosophila melanogaster

Dietary restriction has been shown to effect physiology and behavior in Drosophila melanogaster. We will investigate whether or not dietary restriction modulates aggression by recording fights between male flies reared on diets of varying nutrient and caloric values. It has been shown that fly fighting can be induced by introducing two previously isolated males into an arena containing a small food source. The two males will fight to defend a food their food territory from the one another. A “winner” of the fights can be determined by scoring the fight based on the maneuvers used, and by which fly ultimately remains on the food source. We aim to determine whether or not diet impacts aggression by determining if it can reliable predict the “winner” of the fly fighting bouts.