Abstract
Author SummaryMales of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster generate a series of courtship displays that convey visual, auditory, and olfactory information that females must decode in order to accept or reject mating. Despite the central role of female decision in sexual selection, relatively little is known about how genes and neural circuits generate this behavior. Here we show that the transcription factor datilografo (dati) is required to organize and maintain the neural circuitry required for acceptance in the central brain. Strikingly, dati is required in an excitatory circuit involving few neurons that express acetylcholine as their neurotransmitter and are located in the olfactory lobe, the first entry point for odor processing in the brain. In addition, dati is required in two other brain centers: a region where olfaction and presumably other senses are integrated and a novel region. Together these results show that a complex behavior can be generated by very few excitatory neurons, suggesting that the sharp cutoffs between acceptance and rejection may involve different thresholds of stimulation as postulated decades ago.
Highlights
Animals are capable of a staggering array of complex behaviors and many of them rely on innate abilities to compare different scenarios and generate specific and appropriate responses
Males of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster generate a series of courtship displays that convey visual, auditory, and olfactory information that females must decode in order to accept or reject mating
We show that the transcription factor datilografo is required to organize and maintain the neural circuitry required for acceptance in the central brain
Summary
Animals are capable of a staggering array of complex behaviors and many of them rely on innate abilities to compare different scenarios and generate specific and appropriate responses. Risk assessment and similar mutually exclusive behaviors are likely to rely on neural circuits that collect information, remove irrelevant and noisy information, and quickly determine a course of action. It is not surprising that courtships usually deploy a series of displays that involve bright colors, unusual sounds, and rhythmicities. The recipients of these displays, which in many species are females, evaluate their quality and generate the mutually exclusive behaviors of accepting or rejecting courtship
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