Abstract
Mating behavior in Drosophila depends critically on the sexual identity of specific regions in the brain, but several studies have identified courtship genes that express products only outside the nervous system. Although these genes are each active in a variety of non-neuronal cell types, they are all prominently expressed in the adult fat body, suggesting an important role for this tissue in behavior. To test its role in male courtship, fat body was feminized using the highly specific Larval serum protein promoter. We report here that the specific feminization of this tissue strongly reduces the competence of males to perform courtship. This effect is limited to the fat body of sexually mature adults as the feminization of larval fat body that normally persists in young adults does not affect mating. We propose that feminization of fat body affects the synthesis of male-specific secreted circulating proteins that influence the central nervous system. In support of this idea, we demonstrate that Takeout, a protein known to influence mating, is present in the hemolymph of adult males but not females and acts as a secreted protein.
Highlights
Male courtship in Drosophila melanogaster consists of an innate sequence of behavioral steps that are well characterized [1,2]
Specific regions of the male brain are required for successful courtship, and these neuronal cells require expression of male-specific proteins for normal function
Fat body that originates in larval stages persists into the first few days of adult life, when it is replaced by adult fat body [22]
Summary
Male courtship in Drosophila melanogaster consists of an innate sequence of behavioral steps that are well characterized [1,2]. While dsx primarily controls sexual differentiation outside of the central nervous system (CNS) [3,4], fru is a key regulator of male courtship behavior [2,5,6,7,8]. Male-specific FRU protein (FRU-M) is expressed in numerous cells in the nervous system, including the regions that have previously been identified as important for male courtship behavior [2,5,6,7,9,10,11,12,13,14]. It has recently been demonstrated that expression of FRU-M in these cells in females is sufficient to induce courtship behavior toward normal females, demonstrating the prominent role of fru in regulating sex-specific behavior [15,16,17]. The level of courtship in these females is reduced in comparison to wild-type males, suggesting that other components are required that have not been transformed by the expression of FRU-M
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