Abstract
Upon mating, fruit fly females become refractory to further mating for several days. An ejaculate protein called sex peptide (SP) acts on uterine neurons to trigger this behavioural change, but it is still unclear how the SP signal modifies the mating decision. Here we describe two groups of female-specific local interneurons that are important for this process—the ventral abdominal lateral (vAL) and ventral abdominal medial (vAM) interneurons. Both vAL and vAM express myoinhibitory peptide (Mip)-GAL4. vAL is positive for Mip neuropeptides and the sex-determining transcriptional factor doublesex. Silencing the Mip neurons in females induces active rejection of male courtship attempts, whereas activation of the Mip neurons makes even mated females receptive to re-mating. vAL and vAM are located in the abdominal ganglion (AG) where they relay the SP signal to other AG neurons that project to the brain. Mip neuropeptides appear to promote mating receptivity both in virgins and mated females, although it is dispensable for normal mating in virgin females.
Highlights
Upon mating, fruit fly females become refractory to further mating for several days
Because there was no myoinhibitory peptide (Mip)-GAL4positive process among ppk+ SPR-positive sensory neurons (SPSNs) in the uterus, we explored the possibility that sex peptide (SP) directly modulates central Mip neurons
We examined the behaviour of flies expressing a membrane-tethered form of SP30 in Mip neurons to test the possibility that SP directly modulates Mip neurons via SPR or a second unidentified SP receptor
Summary
Fruit fly females become refractory to further mating for several days. An ejaculate protein called sex peptide (SP) acts on uterine neurons to trigger this behavioural change, but it is still unclear how the SP signal modifies the mating decision. We describe two groups of female-specific local interneurons that are important for this process —the ventral abdominal lateral (vAL) and ventral abdominal medial (vAM) interneurons Both vAL and vAM express myoinhibitory peptide (Mip)-GAL4. Depending on environmental and physiological conditions, animals often need to respond differently to the same stimulus Such behavioural switching is made possible by functional reconfigurations of existing neural circuits. This suggests the neural circuits that regulate female mating receptivity can exist in at least two distinct functional states, receptive and non-receptive. We identify two groups of female-specific local interneurons that relay the SP signal from the SPSNs to the SAG neurons and show that a neuropeptide myoinhibitory peptide (Mip) expressed in some of these neurons promotes mating receptivity in females
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