PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Erika H. Dawson
AU  - Tiphaine Bailly
AU  - Julie Dos Santos
AU  - Céline Moreno
AU  - Maëlle Devilliers
AU  - Brigitte Maroni
AU  - Cédric Sueur
AU  - Andreu Casali
AU  - Beata Ujvari
AU  - Frederic Thomas
AU  - Jacques Montagne
AU  - Frederic Mery
TI  - The relationship between cancer progression and social environment in Drosophila
AID  - 10.1101/143560
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 143560
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/29/143560.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/29/143560.full
AB  - The ecological benefits of sociality in gregarious species are widely acknowledged. However, only limited data is available on how the social environment influences non-communicable disease outcomes. For instance, despite extensive research over the past decades, the role of the social environment on cancer progression remains unclear and controversial. This is mainly because epidemiological studies suffer from the complexity of inter-correlated factors and it is still unknown whether distinct social group composition can also differentially affect tumor growth. Here, we exposed adult Drosophila with colorectal-like tumors to different social environments. We show that both cancerous flies bred in complete isolation, or in a group with non-cancerous individuals, exhibit increased tumor progression compared to those bred with other cancerous conspecifics. Based on video-tracking and social interaction analyses, we propose that this dramatic effect may be a consequence of perceived social isolation due to differential social interaction rates. We found that flies can discriminate between individuals at different stages of tumor growth; control flies actively avoid flies with cancer but only at the later stages of tumor development, whereas cancerous flies display strong social interactions with cancerous flies in the early stages of tumor growth. Our study demonstrates the reciprocal links between cancer and social interactions, as well as highlighting how sociality impacts health and fitness in animals and its potential implications for disease ecology and ecosystem functioningHighlightsWhile it is well established that social life offers many fitness benefits, the influence of social environment on non-transmissible diseases has rarely been considered.Here we used a Drosophila model to explore the reciprocal links between social environment, tumor development and behavior in individual flies.We found that flies kept in isolation developed tumors at a faster rate than those kept in groups and more surprisingly that the identity of group members can significantly affect tumor progression.Flies can discriminate between individual states at different stages of tumor growth; control flies actively avoid flies with cancer but only at the later stages of tumor development, whereas cancerous flies display strong social interactions with flies in the early stages of tumor growthOur findings bring new perspectives to the importance of social structure on non-transmissible disease progression which may have important consequences for animal health.