Journal article
Functional analysis of fruitless gene expression by transgenic manipulations of Drosophila courtship
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.102(46), pp.16550-16557
Inaugural Article
09/22/2005
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0507056102
PMCID: PMC1225315
PMID: 16179386
Abstract
A
gal4
-containing enhancer–trap called
C309
was previously shown to cause subnormal courtship of
Drosophila
males toward females and courtship among males when driving a conditional disrupter of synaptic transmission (
shi
TS
). We extended these manipulations to analyze all features of male-specific behavior, including courtship song, which was almost eliminated by driving
shi
TS
at high temperature. In the context of singing defects and homosexual courtship affected by mutations in the
fru
gene, a
tra
-regulated component of the sex-determination hierarchy, we found a
C309
/
tra
F
combination also to induce high levels of courtship between pairs of males and “chaining” behavior in groups; however, these doubly transgenic males sang normally. Because production of male-specific FRU
M
protein is regulated by TRA, we hypothesized that a
fru
-derived transgene encoding the male (
M
) form of an
I
nhibitory
R
NA (
fru
MIR
) would mimic the effects of
tra
F
; but
C309
/
fru
MIR
males exhibited no courtship chaining, although they courted other males in single-pair tests. Double-labeling of neurons in which GFP was driven by
C309
revealed that 10 of the 20 CNS clusters containing FRU
M
in wild-type males included coexpressing neurons. Histological analysis of the developing CNS could not rationalize the absence of
tra
F
or
fru
MIR
effects on courtship song, because we found
C309
to be coexpressed with FRU
M
within the same 10 neuronal clusters in pupae. Thus, we hypothesize that elimination of singing behavior by the
C309
/
shi
TS
combination involves neurons acting downstream of FRU
M
cells
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Functional analysis of fruitless gene expression by transgenic manipulations of Drosophila courtship
- Creators
- Adriana Villella - Brandeis UniversitySarah L. Ferri - Brandeis UniversityJonathan D. Krystal - Brandeis UniversityJeffrey C. Hall - Brandeis University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.102(46), pp.16550-16557
- Series
- Inaugural Article
- DOI
- 10.1073/pnas.0507056102
- PMID
- 16179386
- PMCID
- PMC1225315
- NLM abbreviation
- Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
- ISSN
- 0027-8424
- eISSN
- 1091-6490
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 09/22/2005
- Academic Unit
- Stead Family Department of Pediatrics; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
- Record Identifier
- 9984354146002771
Metrics
12 Record Views