The Experts below are selected from a list of 270 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Bruce S Baker - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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memory elicited by Courtship conditioning requires mushroom body neuronal subsets similar to those utilized in appetitive memory
PLOS ONE, 2016Co-Authors: Shelby A Montague, Bruce S BakerAbstract:An animal’s ability to learn and to form memories is essential for its survival. The fruit fly has proven to be a valuable model system for studies of learning and memory. One learned behavior in fruit flies is Courtship conditioning. In Drosophila Courtship conditioning, male flies learn not to court females during training with an unreceptive female. He retains a memory of this training and for several hours decreases Courtship when subsequently paired with any female. Courtship conditioning is a unique learning paradigm; it uses a positive-valence stimulus, a female fly, to teach a male to decrease an innate behavior, Courtship of the female. As such, Courtship conditioning is not clearly categorized as either appetitive or aversive conditioning. The mushroom body (MB) region in the fruit fly brain is important for several types of memory; however, the precise subsets of intrinsic and extrinsic MB neurons necessary for Courtship conditioning are unknown. Here, we disrupted synaptic signaling by driving a shibirets effector in precise subsets of MB neurons, defined by a collection of split-GAL4 drivers. Out of 75 lines tested, 32 showed defects in Courtship conditioning memory. Surprisingly, we did not have any hits in the γ lobe Kenyon cells, a region previously implicated in Courtship conditioning memory. We did find that several γ lobe extrinsic neurons were necessary for Courtship conditioning memory. Overall, our memory hits in the dopaminergic neurons (DANs) and the mushroom body output neurons were more consistent with results from appetitive memory assays than aversive memory assays. For example, protocerebral anterior medial DANs were necessary for Courtship memory, similar to appetitive memory, while protocerebral posterior lateral 1 (PPL1) DANs, important for aversive memory, were not needed. Overall, our results indicate that the MB circuits necessary for Courtship conditioning memory coincide with circuits necessary for appetitive memory.
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turning males on activation of male Courtship behavior in drosophila melanogaster
PLOS ONE, 2011Co-Authors: Carmen C Robinett, Bruce S BakerAbstract:The innate sexual behaviors of Drosophila melanogaster males are an attractive system for elucidating how complex behavior patterns are generated. The potential for male sexual behavior in D. melanogaster is specified by the fruitless (fru) and doublesex (dsx) sex regulatory genes. We used the temperature-sensitive activator dTRPA1 to probe the roles of fruM- and dsx-expressing neurons in male Courtship behaviors. Almost all steps of Courtship, from Courtship song to ejaculation, can be induced at very high levels through activation of either all fruM or all dsx neurons in solitary males. Detailed characterizations reveal different roles for fruM and dsx in male Courtship. Surprisingly, the system for mate discrimination still works well when all dsx neurons are activated, but is impaired when all fruM neurons are activated. Most strikingly, we provide evidence for a fruM-independent Courtship pathway that is primarily vision dependent.
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male specific fruitless specifies the neural substrates of drosophila Courtship behaviour
Nature, 2005Co-Authors: Devanand S Manoli, Margit Foss, Adriana Villella, Barbara J Taylor, Jeffrey C Hall, Bruce S BakerAbstract:During Courtship, male Drosophila fruitflies perform a series of innate stereotyped behaviours in response to specific sensory cues. Now the set of nerve cells that govern this behaviour has been identified. Inactivation of these neurons is sufficient to make male flies lose interest in mating, and altering female brains to produce the same proteins produced by these cells causes the females to display male Courtship routines. The neurons produce a set of proteins called FruM, encoded by the fruitless (fru) gene, which has previously been implicated in Courtship in male fruitflies. Inactivation of FruM-producing nerve cells inhibited Courtship without changing other behaviours. And manipulating females' nerve cells so as to produce FruM was enough to cause them to view other females as potential mates. Robust innate behaviours are attractive systems for genetically dissecting how environmental cues are perceived and integrated to generate complex behaviours. During Courtship, Drosophila males engage in a series of innate, stereotyped behaviours that are coordinated by specific sensory cues. However, little is known about the specific neural substrates mediating this complex behavioural programme1. Genetic, developmental and behavioural studies have shown that the fruitless (fru) gene encodes a set of male-specific transcription factors (FruM) that act to establish the potential for Courtship in Drosophila2. FruM proteins are expressed in ∼2% of central nervous system neurons, at least one subset of which coordinates the component behaviours of Courtship3,4. Here we have inserted the yeast GAL4 gene into the fru locus by homologous recombination and show that (1) FruM is expressed in subsets of all peripheral sensory systems previously implicated in Courtship, (2) inhibition of FruM function in olfactory system components reduces olfactory-dependent changes in Courtship behaviour, (3) transient inactivation of all FruM-expressing neurons abolishes Courtship behaviour, with no other gross changes in general behaviour, and (4) ‘masculinization’ of FruM-expressing neurons in females is largely sufficient to confer male Courtship behaviour. Together, these data demonstrate that FruM proteins specify the neural substrates of male Courtship.
Todd E. Shelly - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Mate choice by wild and mass‐reared females of the Mediterranean fruit fly
Journal of Applied Entomology, 2011Co-Authors: Todd E. ShellyAbstract:The sterile insect technique (SIT) is used to control Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), but its effectiveness is limited by low sexual competitiveness of mass-reared males. This study investigated whether wild and mass-reared [from a temperature sensitive lethal (tsl) genetic sexing strain] females display similar mate preferences and thus exert similar selective forces on the evolution of male Courtship behaviour. Wild females preferred wild males over tsl males, whereas tsl females mated indiscriminately. The probability that mounting resulted in copulation was related to the duration of pre-mount Courtship for wild females, and wild males performed longer Courtships than tsl males. Copulation occurred independently of Courtship duration in tsl females. Counter to the aim of the SIT, female choice by tsl females appears to promote the evolution of male behaviour disfavoured by wild females.
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Courtship Behavior in Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae) Comparison of Wild and Mass-Reared Males
Annals of The Entomological Society of America, 1997Co-Authors: Jaana O. Liimatainen, Anneli Hoikkala, Todd E. ShellyAbstract:Field studies in Hawaii have shown that irradiated males from a long-established, laboratory strain of Mediterranean fruit flies, Ceratitis capitata (Weidemann), obtain few matings with wild females. However, sterile males successfully locate natural lek sites, signal (pheromone call) as frequently as wild males, and attract similar numbers of females to their territory. Thus, the low mating success of sterile males presumably resulted from their inability to perform Courtship acceptable to wild females. Here, we investigate possible differences in the Courtship behavior of wild and mass-reared males when mating with wild females. Courtships were videotaped, and transitions between specific behavioral elements were analyzed for both males and females. Mating by wild males usually followed a predictable sequence of male and female behaviors: male calling → female approach → male wing vibrating → female standing → male wing fanning → copulation. In contrast, these transitions were generally absent in the Courtship of mass-reared males. Although not lacking any of the major behavioral elements, Courtship of mass-reared males was characterized by a low degree of behavioral integration between the sexes.
David L. Stern - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Evolution of a central neural circuit underlies Drosophila mate preferences
Nature, 2018Co-Authors: Laura F. Seeholzer, Max Seppo, David L. Stern, Vanessa RutaAbstract:Courtship rituals serve to reinforce reproductive barriers between closely related species. Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans exhibit reproductive isolation, owing in part to the fact that D. melanogaster females produce 7,11-heptacosadiene, a pheromone that promotes Courtship in D. melanogaster males but suppresses Courtship in D. simulans males. Here we compare pheromone-processing pathways in D. melanogaster and D. simulans males to define how these sister species endow 7,11-heptacosadiene with the opposite behavioural valence to underlie species discrimination. We show that males of both species detect 7,11-heptacosadiene using homologous peripheral sensory neurons, but this signal is differentially propagated to P1 neurons, which control Courtship behaviour. A change in the balance of excitation and inhibition onto Courtship-promoting neurons transforms an excitatory pheromonal cue in D. melanogaster into an inhibitory cue in D. simulans . Our results reveal how species-specific pheromone responses can emerge from conservation of peripheral detection mechanisms and diversification of central circuitry, and demonstrate how flexible nodes in neural circuits can contribute to behavioural evolution. A female Drosophila melanogaster pheromone is recognized by males from both the same and a closely related species through conserved peripheral sensory neurons; the signal is then differentially propagated to promote conspecific and suppress interspecies Courtship.
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natural Courtship song variation caused by an intronic retroelement in an ion channel gene
Nature, 2016Co-Authors: Yun Ding, Augusto Berrocal, Tomoko Morita, Kit D Longden, David L. SternAbstract:Natural variation in the Courtship song of Drosophila is mapped to the intronic insertion of a retroelement at the slowpoke locus, which encodes an ion channel. An important aspect of Courtship behaviour in Drosophila is the male Courtship song, generated when the males vibrate their wings. The features of this Courtship song and how this varies between Drosophila species have been well-characterized. David Stern and colleagues now map the genetic variation causal for natural variation in Courtship song between two wild isolates of D. simulans and D. mauritiana to the insertion of a retroelement at the slowpoke (slo) locus, which encodes an ion channel. Animal species display enormous variation for innate behaviours, but little is known about how this diversity arose. Here, using an unbiased genetic approach, we map a Courtship song difference between wild isolates of Drosophila simulans and Drosophila mauritiana to a 966 base pair region within the slowpoke (slo) locus, which encodes a calcium-activated potassium channel1. Using the reciprocal hemizygosity test2, we confirm that slo is the causal locus and resolve the causal mutation to the evolutionarily recent insertion of a retroelement in a slo intron within D. simulans. Targeted deletion of this retroelement reverts the song phenotype and alters slo splicing. Like many ion channel genes, slo is expressed widely in the nervous system and influences a variety of behaviours3,4; slo-null males sing little song with severely disrupted features. By contrast, the natural variant of slo alters a specific component of Courtship song, illustrating that regulatory evolution of a highly pleiotropic ion channel gene can cause modular changes in behaviour.
Marlene Zuk - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Female preferences for acoustic and olfactory signals during Courtship: Male crickets send multiple messages
Behavioral Ecology, 2013Co-Authors: Leigh W. Simmons, Melissa L. Thomas, Frederick W. Simmons, Marlene ZukAbstract:Males can produce complex sexual signals, often in different sensory modalities. The information conveyed by multiple signals, and the degree to which multiple signals interact in influencing female mating decisions, is not well understood. Male crickets produce 2 signals during Courtship, an acoustic signal or Courtship song, and a contact olfactory signal in the form of a blend of hydrocarbon compounds secreted onto the cuticle. We used selection analyses to examine the form of female preferences acting on these 2 sexual signals in the Australian field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus. Both signals were subject to significant nonlinear preferences. Cuticular hydrocarbon profiles were subject to disruptive female preferences, with males exhibiting average cuticular hydrocarbon profiles experiencing the lowest mating success. In contrast, Courtship song was subject to directional preferences, whereby males with high sound content in the trill element of the song, and to a lesser extent the chirp element, had the greatest mating success. Across males, the attractiveness of cuticular hydrocarbons was not correlated with the attractiveness of Courtship songs, indicating that these signals convey multiple messages. Previous work on T. oceanicus suggests that Courtship song may be a condition-dependent signal of good genes, whereas cuticular hydrocarbon profiles may provide cues to genetic compatibility. We found that olfactory and acoustic cues had equal weight in predicting the probability of male mating success. Interactions between cuticular hydrocarbon and Courtship song attractiveness may help explain the maintenance of genetic variation found in these sexual traits.
Anthony Guarino - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Relationship Religiosity, Adult Attachment Styles, and Courtship Violence Experienced by Females
Journal of Family Violence, 2007Co-Authors: Brian J. Higginbotham, Scott A. Ketring, Jeff Hibbert, David W. Wright, Anthony GuarinoAbstract:This study assesses the association between adult attachment styles, religiosity, and Courtship violence as experienced by females. The sample was composed of 299, 18 to 24-year-old females attending junior level Human Development and Family Studies courses at a midwestern state university. Statistical analyses evaluated interactional effects and mean-level differences for both victimization and perpetration of Courtship violence. Additionally, structural equation models were generated. Results indicate significant relationships between adult attachment styles and religiosity on reports of victimization from intimate partners. In general, the results suggest that females with low religiosity and insecure attachment styles report experiencing more Courtship violence than females reporting high religiosity and secure attachment styles. The analyses also provide support for a multidimensional conceptualization of religiosity. Indicators of `relationship' religiosity were more strongly linked to lower reports of Courtship violence than personal and private relationship measures. The findings suggest that future studies evaluating the effects of religiosity on Courtship violence should include measures of `relationship’ religiosity.
