本期Nature Communications上报告了造成果蝇攻击行为的两个基因。这项研究加深了我们对攻击性的分子机制以及这些机制在不同物种中怎样得以保留下来的认识。

攻击是动物的共同社会行为。在小鼠中，一个转录因子基因(Nr2e1)已被发现对攻击行为有很大影响，Nr2e1的突变也已被与人类的精神分裂症、躁郁症和精神病关联起来。在这项研究中，Herman Dierick及同事发现，“无尾基因”（果蝇的相当于小鼠Nr2e1基因的基因）的抑制及其共抑制因子Atrotrophin能增强果蝇的攻击性。

该小组提供的证据证明，“无尾基因”通过调控“脑间部”（果蝇脑中与哺乳动物下丘脑在功能、发育和结构上相似的一个区域）中神经分泌细胞对神经肽的释放来施加其影响。作者进而提出，这一过程可能代表着攻击行为的一个核心机制——不仅对果蝇是如此，而且对所有动物都是如此。

Nature Communications            doi:10.1038/ncomms4177

Tailless and Atrophin control Drosophila aggression by regulating neuropeptide signalling in the pars intercerebralis

Shaun M. Davis，  Amanda L. Thomas，  Krystle J. Nomie，  Longwen Huang  & Herman A. Dierick

Aggressive behaviour is widespread throughout the animal kingdom. However， its mechanisms are poorly understood， and the degree of molecular conservation between distantly related species is unknown. Here we show that knockdown of tailless (tll) increases aggression in Drosophila， similar to the effect of its mouse orthologue Nr2e1. Tll localizes to the adult pars intercerebralis (PI)， which shows similarity to the mammalian hypothalamus. Knockdown of tll in the PI is sufficient to increase aggression and is rescued by co-expressing human NR2E1. Knockdown of Atrophin， a Tll co-repressor， also increases aggression， and both proteins physically interact in the PI. tll knockdown-induced aggression is fully suppressed by blocking neuropeptide processing or release from the PI. In addition， genetically activating PI neurons increases aggression， mimicking the aggression-inducing effect of hypothalamic stimulation. Together， our results suggest that a transcriptional control module regulates neuropeptide signalling from the neurosecretory cells of the brain to control aggressive behaviour.