Ovipositor Extrusion Promotes the Transition from Courtship to Copulation and Signals Female Acceptance in Drosophila melanogaster

Mezzera, Cecilia; Brotas, Margarida; Gaspar, Miguel; Pavlou, Hania J.; Goodwin, Stephen F.; Vasconcelos, Maria Luísa

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.071

Cited by 49 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The most frequent connection type was pulse-preferring neurons exciting other pulse-preferring neurons (Fig. 7F) - many of these connections were in the sub-network of pulse-preferring neurons that includes descending neurons pMN1/DNp13 and pMN2/vpoDN (Mezzera et al, 2020; Wang et al, 2020b). Pulse-preferring neurons also excited intermediate-preference neurons (Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Network Organization for Courtship Song Feature Detection inDrosophila

Baker

McKellar

Nern

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Animals communicate using sounds in a wide range of contexts, and auditory systems must encode behaviorally relevant acoustic features to drive appropriate reactions. How feature detection emerges along auditory pathways has been difficult to solve due to both challenges in comprehensively mapping the underlying circuits, particularly in large brains, and in characterizing tuning for behaviorally relevant features. Here, we take advantage of the small size, genetic tools, and connectomic resources for the Drosophila melanogaster brain to investigate feature selectivity for the two main modes of fly courtship song, sinusoids and pulse trains. By building a large collection of genetic enhancer lines, we identify 24 new cell types of the intermediate layers of the auditory pathway. Using a new connectomic resource, FlyWire, we map connections among these cell types, in addition to connections to known early and higher-order auditory neurons. We characterize auditory responses throughout this pathway, and find that the newly discovered neurons show diverse preferences for courtship song modes. However, rather than being sorted into separate streams, neurons with different preferences are highly interconnected. Among this population, frequency tuning is centered on frequencies present in song, whereas rate tuning is biased towards rates below those present in song, suggesting that these neurons form a basis set for the generation of pulse feature tuning downstream. Our study provides new insights into the organization of auditory coding within the Drosophila brain.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Network Organization for Courtship Song Feature Detection inDrosophila

Baker

McKellar

Nern

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Therefore, we performed an activation screen of splitGal4 lines [32][33][34] selected based on Abg expression and from this screen we selected a line, we will call OvAbg, for further investigation. Interestingly, the OvAbg line encompasses regulatory fragments of the sex determination gene, doublesex (dsx), widely known to control sex specific reproductive behaviours in flies [34][35][36][37][38] . The OvAbg line anatomy reveals a group of neurons exclusively localized in the Abg (Fig.…”

Section: Activity Of Ovabg Neurons Promotes Egg Depositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuronal control of suppression, initiation and completion of egg deposition in Drosophila melanogaster

Oliveira-Ferreira

Gaspar

Vasconcelos

2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Egg-laying in Drosophila is the product of post-mating physiological and behavioural changes that culminate in a stereotyped sequence of actions. While egg-laying behaviour has been mostly used as a system to understand the neuronal basis of decision making in the context of site selection, it harbours a great potential as a paradigm to uncover how, once a site is selected, the appropriate motor circuits are organized and activated to deposit an egg. To study this programme, we first describe the different stages of the egg-laying programme and the specific actions associated with each stage. Using a combination of neuronal activation and silencing experiments we characterize the role of three distinct neuronal populations in the abdominal ganglion with different contributions to the egg deposition motor elements. Specifically, we identify a subset of glutamatergic neurons and a subset of cholinergic neurons that promote the initiation and completion of egg expulsion respectively, while a subset of GABAergic neurons suppresses egg-laying. This study provides insight into the organization of neuronal circuits underlying complex motor behaviour.

show abstract

“…When stimulated with red light, dsf Ga14 ⋂ dsx LexA > CsChrimson virgin females adjusted the posture and length of their abdomen and opened their vaginal plates, partially exposing their ovipositor (Supplemental Video 1; Figure 4A). Virgin females normally open their vaginal plates if they are receptive to courting males [22,23] in contrast to mated females, which signal their unwillingness to mate by extruding their ovipositor [22,24,25]. The length of the female’s abdomen increases during both behaviors, but by a greater amount during an ovipositor extrusion (Figure 4B).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Virgin females normally open their vaginal plates if they are receptive to courting males [21,22]. In contrast, mated females signal their unwillingness to mate by extruding their ovipositor [21,23,24].…”

Section: Expression Of Dsf In the Drosophila Central Nervous Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulation of sexually dimorphic abdominal courtship behaviors in Drosophila by the Tlx/tailless-like nuclear receptor, Dissatisfaction

Duckhorn

Cande

Metkus

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sexually dimorphic courtship behaviors in Drosophila melanogaster develop from the activity of the sexual differentiation genes, doublesex (dsx) and fruitless (fru), functioning with other regulatory factors that have received little attention. The dissatisfaction gene (dsf) encodes an orphan nuclear receptor homologous to vertebrate Tlx and Drosophila tailless that is critical for the development of several aspects of female- and male-specific sexual behaviors. Here, we report the pattern of dsf expression in the central nervous system and show that the activity of sexually dimorphic abdominal interneurons that co-express dsf and dsx is necessary and sufficient for vaginal plate opening in virgin females and abdominal curling in males during courtship. We find that dsf activity results in different neuroanatomical outcomes in females and males, promoting and suppressing, respectively, female development and function of the DDAG neurons depending upon the sexual state of dsx expression. We posit that dsf and dsx interact to specify sex differences in the neural circuitry for dimorphic abdominal behaviors.

show abstract

Ovipositor Extrusion Promotes the Transition from Courtship to Copulation and Signals Female Acceptance in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract: Highlights d DNp13 activity induces full ovipositor extrusion d Ovipositor extrusion is a response to the male courtship song d Male licking an extruded ovipositor prompts copulation attempt d Upon copulation attempt, receptive females retract the ovipositor to allow copulation

Cited by 49 publications

References 48 publications

Neural Network Organization for Courtship Song Feature Detection inDrosophila

Neural Network Organization for Courtship Song Feature Detection inDrosophila

Neuronal control of suppression, initiation and completion of egg deposition in Drosophila melanogaster

Regulation of sexually dimorphic abdominal courtship behaviors in Drosophila by the Tlx/tailless-like nuclear receptor, Dissatisfaction

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About