The Novel Concept of "Behavioural Instability" and Its Potential Applications

The concept of developmental instability (DI) is a well-known indicator of environmental and genetic stress and is often investigated using various indices such as fluctuating asymmetry, directional asymmetry, antisymmetry and phenotypic variance. Investigations dealing with DI are using morphometric traits. The aim of this investigation is to present the novel concept of behavioural instability in which the trait measured is a behavioural trait. We apply the conventional indices used for the estimation of developmental instability on directional movement—clockwise (CW) and counter-clockwise (CCW) movement of 19 highly inbred lines of Drosophila melanogaster tested in a circular arena. We show that it is possible to quantify behavioural instability using the indices traditionally used to investigate DI. Results revealed several significant differences among lines, depending on the index utilized. The perspectives of utilizing the concept in biological research such as toxicology, evolutionary and stress biology are discussed.