fruitless tunes functional flexibility of courtship circuitry during development

• Published in: eLife Vol. 10
• Main Authors: Chen, Jie, Jin, Sihui, Chen, Dandan, Cao, Jie, Ji, Xiaoxiao, Peng, Qionglin, Pan, Yufeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England eLife Science Publications, Ltd 19.01.2021; eLife Sciences Publications Ltd; eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
• Subjects: Adults; Animal behavior; Animal reproduction; Animals; Behavior; Bisexuality; circuit flexibility; Courtship; Drosophila; Drosophila melanogaster - genetics; Drosophila melanogaster - physiology; Drosophila Proteins - genetics; Drosophila Proteins - metabolism; Female; Females; Fruit-flies; fruitless; Genes; Homosexuality; innate behavior; Insects; Male; Males; MicroRNAs; Morphology; Nerve Tissue Proteins - genetics; Nerve Tissue Proteins - metabolism; Nervous system; Neurons; Neurophysiology; Neuroscience; Proteins; Sexual Behavior, Animal; sexual orientation; Short Report; Transcription Factors - genetics; Transcription Factors - metabolism; courtship; neuroscience; sexual orientation; circuit flexibility; innate behavior; fruitless; D. melanogaster
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/eLife.59224

Drosophila male courtship is controlled by the male-specific products of the ( ) gene and its expressing neuronal circuitry. is considered a master gene that controls all aspects of male courtship. By temporally and spatially manipulating expression, we found that is required during a critical developmental period for innate courtship toward females, while its function during adulthood is involved in inhibiting male-male courtship. By altering or eliminating expression, we generated males that are innately heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or without innate courtship but could acquire such behavior in an experience-dependent manner. These findings show that is not absolutely necessary for courtship but is critical during development to build a sex circuitry with reduced flexibility and enhanced efficiency, and provide a new view about how tunes functional flexibility of a sex circuitry instead of switching on its function as conventionally viewed.