Mating increases Drosophila melanogaster females’ choosiness by reducing olfactory sensitivity to a male pheromone

• Published in: Nature ecology & evolution Vol. 5; no. 8; pp. 1165 - 1173
• Main Authors: Kohlmeier, Philip, Zhang, Ye, Gorter, Jenke A., Su, Chih-Ying, Billeter, Jean-Christophe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.08.2021; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 13/89; 38/91; 631/181/2470; 631/378/3919; 64/24; Animals; Biological and Physical Anthropology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Desensitization; Drosophila melanogaster; Ecology; Evolutionary Biology; Female; Females; Fruit flies; Insects; Juvenile hormones; Life Sciences; Male; Males; Neuromodulation; Neurons; Offspring; Olfactory neurons; Olfactory thresholds; Paleontology; Pheromones; Plasticity; Polyandry; Reproduction; Selectivity; Sexual Behavior, Animal; Sperm; Spermatozoa; Zoology

Females that are highly selective when choosing a mate run the risk of remaining unmated or delaying commencing reproduction. Therefore, low female choosiness would be beneficial when males are rare but it would be maladaptive if males become more frequent. How can females resolve this issue? Polyan...