Portions of the central nervous system controlling reproductive behavior in Drosophila melanogaster

Behavioral and neurobiological implications of sex-determining factors in Drosophila

The function of the central nervous system as it controls sex-specific behaviors in Drosophila has been studied with renewed intensity, in the context of genetic factors that influence the development of sexually differentiated aspects of this insect. Three categories of genetic variations that cause anomalies in courtship and mating behaviors are discussed: (1) mutants isolated with regard to courtship defects, of which putatively courtship-specific variants such as the fruitless mutant are a subset; (2) general behavioral and neurological variants (including sensory and learning mutants), whose defects include subnormal reproductive performance; and (3) mutations of genes within the sex-determination regulatory hierarchy of Drosophila, the analysis of which has included studies of reproductive behavior. Recent studies of mutations in two of these categories have provided new insights into the control of neuronally based aspects of sex-specific behavior. The doublesex gene, the final factor acting in the sex-determination hierarchy, had been previously thought to regulate all aspects of sexual differentiation. Yet, it has been recently shown that doublesex does not control at least one neuronally-determined feature of sex-specific anatomy--a muscle in the male's abdomen, whose normal development is, however, dependent on the action of fruitless. These considerations prompted us to examine further (and in some cases re-examine) the influences exerted by sex-determination hierarchy genes on behavior. Our results--notably those obtained from assessments of doublesex mutations' effects on general reproductive actions and on a particular component of the courtship sequence (male "singing" behavior)--lead to the suggestion that there is a previously unrecognized branch within the sex-determination hierarchy, which controls the differentiation of the male- and female- specific phenotypes of Drosophila. This new branch separates from the doublesex-related one immediately before the action of that gene (just after transformer and transformer-2) and appears to control as least some aspects of neuronally determined sexual differentiation of males.

Sexual behavior in laboratory strains of Drosophila mercatorum that have spontaneously adopted parthenogenesis

Three instances are described in which bisexual laboratory strains spontaneously adopted an exclusively parthenogenetic mode of reproduction, even in the presence of fertile, bisexual males. The few males produced by the parthenogenetic strains lack a Y chromosome and are sterile but, nevertheless, showed no correlated impairment of normal mating behavior. In contrast, females show a strong reluctance to accept copulation. This behavioral correlate of parthenogenesis also has been observed previously in experimentally produced parthenogenetic lines. We suggest that genetic breakdown in female mating behavior may contribute to an evolutionary stimulus that results in a selective increase in the frequency of diploidizing events in unfertilized eggs. This ultimately might lead to the origin of an exclusively parthenogenetic reproductive mode.

Neural control of homosexual courtship in Drosophila melanogaster

Immature D. melanogaster males, like virgin females, often elicit vigorous courtship from mature males. Since males perform the same behaviors in response to attractive males and females, the question arises as to whether the foci--cells in the courting male's nervous system that must be haplo-X for the fly to perform a behavior--are the same for homosexual and heterosexual courtship. To answer this question, we analyzed the behaviors that normal males perform in response to sexually attractive flies. From these data, we calculated the probabilities that a fly with haplo-X tissue in a focus for homosexual and heterosexual courtship would perform the behavior in response to one or both of the two sex objects with which it was tested. Next, we observed the courtship behaviors that gynandromorphs (sex mosaics) performed in response to attractive males and females. Since the numbers of mosaics that performed a behavior in response to one or both of the sex objects with which they were tested were not significantly different from the predicted values, we conclude that the foci for performance of homosexual and heterosexual courtship are almost certainly identical.

Sexually dimorphic neurons of the terminalia of Drosophila melanogaster: II. Sex-specific axonal arborizations in the central nervous system

In order to understand how the peripheral nervous system in male and female flies differ, I have determined the projection pattern of sensory neurons that innervate the sex-specific adult terminalia, the genitalia and analia, of Drosophila melanogaster. In the adult male and female fly, mechanosensory bristles arranged on the external terminalia are innervated by sensory neurons that arborize in the abdominal ganglion. The distribution of axonal arbors differs between males and females. In males, sensory neurons terminate in a greater variety of patterns over a larger area of neuropil than those in females. Mutations in a sex-determining gene (transformer-2, tra-2,) which regulates the development of secondary sexual characteristics in somatic tissues, cause female flies to be transformed into phenotypic males. The sensory neurons of the terminalia are also transformed leading them to arborize appropriately for male neurons.

Acetylcholinesterase mutants in Drosophila and their effects on the structure and function of the central nervous system

Mutations that eliminate acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity were used to study the effects of disrupted acetylcholine metabolism on the form and function of the central nervous system in Drosophila melanogaster. Mutants in the Ace gene, which have no AChE activity, usually die in early development, but the postembryonic effects of this lesion can be studied in genetic mosaics, or with conditional mutants. Adult mosaics, which expressed Ace mutations in part of their CNS, exhibited morphological defects in any ganglionic neuropile whose cells were mutant. The defects included reduction in ganglionic volume, a condensed appearance, and for a very large clone, degeneration. Examination of many such mosaics indicated that small clones restricted to one side of the CNS were not usually lethal. However, mosaics with large clones, with clones on either side of the posterior slope of the protocerebrum, or with clones encompassing symmetrical structures on both sides of the CNS rarely survived to adulthood. Mosaics with AChE-null tissue on either side of the optic lobes or the posterior-inferior protocerebrum had marked deficits in optomotor behavior, although they were outwardly normal in their movement and posture. Mosaics with Ace mutant tissue in the first-order optic lobe, the lamina, lacked a synaptic component of the electroretinogram, the "off" transient. Tests of courtship behavior revealed that AChE mosaics with mutant clones in the superior protocerebrum were often capable of demonstrating male courtship. However, their behavior was quantitatively and perhaps qualitatively deficient. In order to study critical periods for the effects of mutant AChE, temperature-sensitive mutations of the Ace gene were isolated. Flies bearing certain of these new mutations produced AchE activity that was thermolabile in vivo and in vitro. The critical period during which the mutants were most susceptible to conditional lethality was late in embryogenesis.

Genetic and behavioral studies of female sex appeal in Drosophila

The sex appeal of a Drosophila melanogaster female is defined here as the stimulus (or set of stimuli) which induces wing vibration in courting males. A quantitative measure of sex appeal is the cumulative duration of wing vibration induced by a given female averaged over several consecutive test intervals using different standardized male testers (sex appeal parameter, SAP). By use of SAP, both males and females are found to have the same amount of sex appeal on the first day after eclosion. However, males rapidly lose it by the next day, so that mature males become distinct from females. We report the ontogeny of the male's response to sex appeal. By the SAP method, we also demonstrate that the male's response is dependent on his previous encounter with females. The sex appeal of 287 gynandromorphs was examined in order to localize the sex appeal focus by means of blastoderm fate mapping. Most mosaic flies were classified as either positive (femalelike, with high SAPs) or negative (malelike, with SAPs of zero). Sixteen percent of the gynandromorphs had intermediate levels of SAP, inducing only short vibrations, a response which males rarely give to normal females. Assuming that the gynanders with such intermediate sex appeal must have both female and male foci, distances to the foci from external landmarks were calculated. The center of the focus seems to be an internal structure mapping to the ventroposterior region of the blastoderm fate map, close to the primordia of the anterior sternites. The focus might include a large mesodermal area, but only part of it must have a female genotype for the sex appeal to be expressed. A possible involvement of the fat bodies in production of the sex appeal stimulus is discussed in relation to these findings. Consistent with this conclusion is the fact that females whose abdomens were amputated still retain enough sex appeal to induce male wing vibrations.