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Letter

Nature Genetics 38, 1435–1439 (1 December 2006) | doi:10.1038/ng1908

A double-switch system regulates male courtship behavior in male and female Drosophila melanogaster

Troy R Shirangi , Barbara J Taylor & Michael McKeown

Current models describe male-specific fruitless (fruM) as a genetic 'switch' regulating sexual behavior in Drosophila melanogaster, and they postulate that female (F) and male (M) doublesex (dsx) products control body sexual morphology. In contradiction to this simple model, we show that dsx, as well as fruM and non–sex-specific retained (retn), affect both male and female sexual behaviors.