fruit fly fight club

Outtakes

Cheering them on

Doing no harm

Scoring a fight

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TRAINING ROOM: Undergrads Learn How to Promote Fly Fights

Researchers are betting on future mutant fly fights to learn more about the biology of aggression, dominance, and defeat.

Fruit flies fight? Who knew? An inside tip about fruit flies brawling launched the fruit fly fight club.

First, Selby Chen, Ann Lee, and Nina Bowens (not pictured) had to figure out how to provoke a fight between young male fruit flies. How it's done
Staging the match

What is normal? Now that they know what a normal fight looks like, they're moving on to mutant fruit fly fights.

More information:
Kravitz lab home pages
http://www.hms.harvard.edu/bss/neuro/kravitz/
http://neuro.med.harvard.edu/site/faculty/kravitz.html
Kravitz lab movies of fighting lobsters and flies
Focus story of final fly results (5/3/2002)
Focus story on preliminary fly results (11/30/2001)
Focus story on lobster fighting (5/24/1996)
Last updated May 3, 2002

Q & A with "promoter" Ed Kravitz

Fruit flies, lobsters, and humans in conflict share similar brain chemicals and behaviors. Dopamine and serotonin have been implicated in aggression studies in animals and in rare human genetic mutations. Kravitz hopes the findings will lead to greater understanding of human aggression and violence.

Q: Why are you studying aggression in flies and lobsters?

Q: Does aggression in people involve any of the same brain chemicals you've found in fighting lobsters?

Q. What have you learned from lobster fights?

Q. What can you learn from genetic mutations in fruit flies?

Q. What are the lasting effects of winning or losing fights?

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