A Model-Based Analysis of Chemical and Temporal Patterns of Cuticular Hydrocarbons in Male Drosophila melanogaster

Clement Kent,Adrienne Chu,Ben Smith,Reza Azanchi,Joel Levine,Tom Tregenza

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000962

Abstract

Drosophila Cuticular Hydrocarbons (CH) influence courtship behaviour, mating, aggregation, oviposition, and resistance to desiccation. We measured levels of 24 different CH compounds of individual male D. melanogaster hourly under a variety of environmental (LD/DD) conditions. Using a model-based analysis of CH variation, we developed an improved normalization method for CH data, and show that CH compounds have reproducible cyclic within-day temporal patterns of expression which differ between LD and DD conditions. Multivariate clustering of expression patterns identified 5 clusters of co-expressed compounds with common chemical characteristics. Turnover rate estimates suggest CH production may be a significant metabolic cost. Male cuticular hydrocarbon expression is a dynamic trait influenced by light and time of day; since abundant hydrocarbons affect male sexual behavior, males may present different pheromonal profiles at different times and under different conditions.

Highlights

Chemical communication is fundamentally important to the biology of many organisms
Using unguided clustering methods with the Pearson distance measure we show that compounds that cluster together based on patterns of expression are, for the most part, in the same chemical pathways, but that chain length is a strong grouping factor
Research on Cuticular Hydrocarbons (CH) is complicated by the high variability in Total Abundance (TA)

Summary

Introduction

Several reproductive behaviors are mediated by chemical signals in insects[1]. Research on chemosensory function has advanced beyond the initial identification of olfactory and gustatory receptors to include mechanisms involved in the production, emission, and neural processing of chemical signals [2,3]. Chemical signals emitted by Drosophila are made within the fly and are found on the body surface, and include sex pheromones [4,5,6]. Other social interactions in Drosophila, such as the social resetting of circadian clocks [7], are mediated by chemical cues. The analysis of such chemical signals has been complicated, in part by the high variability between flies

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Conclusion