Swallow co-authors study on insect behavior, neurochemistry

John Swallow, professor and chair of biology at CU Denver’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and his lab groups are applying information about neurotransmitters to illustrate the power of using insect models to study aggression. Swallow and his team were invited to contribute to December’s special-themed issue of the journal Current Zoology titled “Ecological and Evolutionary Connections Between Morphology, Behavior and Physiology.”

Their contribution, “Neurochemistry as a bridge between morphology and behavior: Perspectives on aggression in insects,” was co-authored by Swallow; Andrew Bubak, a Ph.D. student; Jaime Grace, a postdoc; and University of South Dakota colleagues professor Ken Renner and assistant professor Mick Watt.

“We are interested in the role of monoamines or neurotransmitters – such as serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline – in the modulation of aggression because the outcome of contests over limited resources such as mates, territories, and food has significant fitness consequences,” Swallow said. “Because monoamines share deep evolutionary origins in vertebrates and invertebrates they can have comparable effects in such diverse processes as aggression, learning and memory, mating behaviors and reproduction, stress responses and locomotion.”