Editor's Summary

27 March 2008

Scent's different directions

Despite dramatic behavioural differences between the sexes, surprisingly few anatomic features have been observed that differentiate the male and female brain in any species. Work in the Drosophila fruit fly has now uncovered a striking difference in male and female responses to the insect pheromone cVA (cis-vaccenyl acetate). Males release the pheromone, which is detected by both sexes via apparently identical neural circuits in their antennae. The scent induces females to become receptive to males, but in rival males it inhibits courtship behaviour. The single neuron tracing technique developed to make this discovery should be applicable to study the nervous systems of other genetically tractable species, such as the mouse.

Letter: The Drosophila pheromone cVA activates a sexually dimorphic neural circuit

Sandeep Robert Datta, Maria Luisa Vasconcelos, Vanessa Ruta, Sean Luo, Allan Wong, Ebru Demir, Jorge Flores, Karen Balonze, Barry J. Dickson & Richard Axel

doi:10.1038/nature06808

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