The role of cuticular pheromones in courtship conditioning of Drosophila males

Abstract

Courtship conditioning is an associative learning paradigm in Drosophila melanogaster, wherein male courtship behavior is modified by experience with unreceptive, previously mated females. While the training experience with mated females involves multiple sensory and behavioral interactions, we hypothesized that female cuticular hydrocarbons function as a specific chemosensory conditioned stimulus in this learning paradigm. The effects of training with mated females were determined in courtship tests with either wild-type virgin females as courtship targets, or with target flies of different genotypes that express distinct cuticular hydrocarbon (CH) profiles. Results of tests with female targets that lacked the normal CH profile, and with male targets that expressed typically female CH profiles, indicated that components of this CH profile are both necessary and sufficient cues to elicit the effects of conditioning. Results with additional targets indicated that the female-specific 7,11-dienes, which induce naive males to court, are not essential components of the conditioned stimulus. Rather, the learned response was significantly correlated with the levels of 9-pentacosene (9-P), a compound found in both males and females of many Drosophila strains and species. Adding 9-P to target flies showed that it stimulates courting males to attempt to copulate, and confirmed its role as a component of the conditioned stimulus by demonstrating dose-dependent increases in the expression of the learned response. Thus, 9-P can contribute significantly to the conditioned suppression of male courtship toward targets that express this pheromone.

Epigenetic Control of Learning and Memory inDrosophilaby Tip60 HAT Action

“…This assay is an associative conditioning procedure that measures both learning and memory in individual flies (Broughton et al 2003). The conditioning aspect of the assay is based on the observation that male courtship behavior is modified by exposure to a previously mated female that is unreceptive to courting (Siegel and Hall 1979;Siwicki et al 2005). Thus, after a 1-hr training session with a mated female, wild-type males suppress their courtship behavior even toward subsequent receptive virgin females, an effect that decays after 1-3 hr (Siegel and Hall 1979) To examine the effect of Tip60 HAT function on learning and memory, we misregulated Drosophila Tip60 in the mushroom body by utilizing our previously reported transgenic lines that carry GAL4-responsive transgenes for either a dominant negative HAT defective version of dTip60 (dTip60 E431Q ) or wild-type dTip60 (dTip60 WT ) (Siegel and Hall 1979;Lorbeck et al 2011).…”

A single social defeat reduces aggression in a highly aggressive strain of Drosophila

“…Canton-S or bully males were taken from isolation vials and aspirated into individual courtship chambers (3.5-cm 2 watch glasses on top of glass plates; ref. 24) and kept alone for ≈5 min. One virgin female was then added to each chamber.…”

Regulation of onset of female mating and sex pheromone production by juvenile hormone in Drosophila melanogaster

“…Two dienes [(Z,Z)-7,11-C27:2 and (Z,Z)-7,11-C29:2: the 7,11-dienes] are specific to the female and have been shown to stimulate courtship behavior by conspecific males (15)(16)(17)(18). Also, the 7-and 9-C25 monoenes produced by the female may act as aphrodisiacs (17,30). To elucidate the basis of the reduced attractiveness of CAX females, we examined the CHC profiles of these females at various times after eclosion.…”