Ph.D. University of Toronto 2007 M.Sc. Brock University 2000 B.Sc. Brock University 1999

Animal Biology Evolutionary Biology Functional Genomics Genetics Neurobiology Psychology & Behavior

I study the evolutionary genetics of animal behaviour. I focus primarily on the rover/sitter foraging polymorphism found in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster and discovered by Marla Sokolowski in the early 1980s. Rovers eat less but move more than sitters during foraging and they are more likely to explore new food patches than sitters. These behavioural differences arise mainly from allelic variation in foraging (for), which encodes a cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG). Rovers (forR) have higher RNA transcript levels and PKG activity levels than sitters (fors). This polymorphism has now become a classic model system in behaviour genetics. My research explores: i) the evolutionary link between foraging behaviour and cGMP-dependent protein kinase, ii) identifying additional genes that influence foraging behaviour, and iii) the maintenance of the rover/sitter polymorphism by frequency-dependent selection.

Alleles underlying larval foraging behaviour influence adult dispersal in nature.Edelsparre AH, Vesterberg A, Lim JH, Anwari M, Fitzpatrick MJ.Ecol. Lett. 2014 Mar;17(3):333-9 pubmed Behavioural genetics: worms seek that old beetle smell.Sokolowski MB, Fitzpatrick MJ.Curr. Biol. 2008 Jun;18(11):R480-2 pubmed Maintaining a behaviour polymorphism by frequency-dependent selection on a single gene.Fitzpatrick MJ, Feder E, Rowe L, Sokolowski MB.Nature 2007 May;447(7141):210-2 pubmed Candidate genes for behavioural ecology.Fitzpatrick MJ, Ben-Shahar Y, Smid HM, Vet LE, Robinson GE, Sokolowski MB.Trends Ecol. Evol. (Amst.) 2005 Feb;20(2):96-104 pubmed In Search of Food: Exploring the Evolutionary Link Between cGMP-Dependent Protein Kinase (PKG) and Behaviour.Fitzpatrick MJ, Sokolowski MB.Integr. Comp. Biol. 2004 Feb;44(1):28-36 pubmed Pleiotropy and the genomic location of sexually selected genes.Fitzpatrick MJ.Am. Nat. 2004 Jun;163(6):800-8 pubmed