Taste and pheromonal inputs govern the regulation of time investment for mating by sexual experience in male Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Males have finite resources to spend on reproduction. Thus, males rely on a ‘time investment strategy’ to maximize their reproductive success. For example, male Drosophila melanogaster extends their mating duration when surrounded by conditions enriched with rivals. Here we report a different form of behavioral plasticity whereby male fruit flies exhibit a shortened duration of mating when they are sexually experienced; we refer to this plasticity as ‘shorter-mating-duration (SMD)’. SMD is a plastic behavior and requires sexually dimorphic taste neurons. We identified several neurons in the male foreleg and midleg that express specific sugar and pheromone receptors. Using a cost-benefit model and behavioral experiments, we further show that SMD behavior exhibits adaptive behavioral plasticity in male flies. Thus, our study delineates the molecular and cellular basis of the sensory inputs required for SMD; this represents a plastic interval timing behavior that could serve as a model system to study how multisensory inputs converge to modify interval timing behavior for improved adaptation.

Local desensitization to dopamine devalues recurring behavior

“…We found that, after spending 2.5 hours mating ad libitum with females in a satiety assay (1 male with ∼15 virgin females 6,34 ; see Methods ), males become much more likely to terminate subsequent matings when challenged ( Figure 1A, B, Supplementary Figure 1B ). This manifestation of satiety lasts for at least a day ( Figure 1B ), holds across multiple threat modalities ( Figure 1C ), and, in agreement with previous reports 6,35 , does not alter the duration of unchallenged matings ( Supplementary Figure 1C ).…”

Glia‐specific expression of neuropeptide receptor Lgr4 regulates development and adult physiology in Drosophila

“…Forty to fifty adults were used for climbing assay. Statistical comparisons were made between Figures 7, 8, and S9) (Lee et al, 2023). In short, "estimation statistics" is a simple framework that-while avoiding the pitfalls of significance testing-uses familiar statistical concepts: means, mean differences, and error bars.…”

“…Individual tests and significance are detailed in figure legends. Besides traditional t ‐test for statistical analysis, we added estimation statistics for all climbing assays and two group comparing graphs (Figures 7, 8, and S9) (Lee et al., 2023). In short, “estimation statistics” is a simple framework that—while avoiding the pitfalls of significance testing—uses familiar statistical concepts: means, mean differences, and error bars.…”

Exploring the Asymmetric Body’s Influence on Interval Timing Behaviors of Drosophila melanogaster

“…Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data from the Drosophila melanogaster were obtained from the Fly Cell Atlas website (https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abk2432). (Li et al 2022) Statistical Tests Statistical analysis of mating duration assay was described previously (Kim et al 2012(Kim et al , 2013Lee et al 2023). More than 50 males (group and single) were used for mating duration assay.…”

“…This cognitive function is thought to be in uenced by both hemispheres of the brain, with each hemisphere contributing to different aspects of time perception (Polzella et al 1977; Mitrani 1984, 1985). Interval timing is a fundamental cognitive process that is conserved across a broad spectrum of biological diversity, ranging from humans to insects (Boisvert and Drosophila also exhibit interval timing behaviors, such as rival-induced prolonged mating duration (LMD) (Bretman et al 2009; Kim et al 2012Kim et al , 2013 and sexual experience-mediated shorter mating duration (SMD) (Lee et al 2023). These behaviors require the integration of sensory cues and the formation of long-term memory (LTM) (Kim et al 2012(Kim et al , 2016.…”