29 July 2004
Courtship: Quick off the mark
Courtship in the fruitfly Drosophila is one of the most thoroughly studied behaviours in any animal, and anything new learnt about it is likely to have parallels in other areas of biology. The male, on encountering a female, performs a series of set behaviours in the minutes before copulation. A slow pace may allow the female to test the fitness of the male. In yet another striking application of gene knockdown by RNA interference, the elimination of the male-specific product of the fruitless gene in a group of about 60 neurons in the brain is found to have a specific effect on courting behaviour. Time spent in courtship is drastically reduced, and some steps are omitted entirely. The abrupt courtship in flies lacking the critical neurons resembles normal behaviour in other insects, suggesting that species differences may reflect changes in a neural circuit present in many insect species.
Median bundle neurons coordinate behaviours
during Drosophila male courtship
DEVANAND S. MANOLI & BRUCE S. BAKER
Nature 430, 564–569 (2004); doi:10.1038/nature02713
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