ArticleCurrent biology : CB2016
Activation of Latent Courtship Circuitry in the Brain of Drosophila Females Induces Male-like Behaviors.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sex of central neurons controls intestinal niche signalling to drive sex differences in stem cell activity and cancer susceptibility.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Evolutionary basis of male same-sex sexual behavior by multiple pheromone switches in Drosophila.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- Organization and evolution of sex-biased gene expression inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Neural evolution of complex motor behaviors: insights from Drosophila courtship song.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2025Review
- From neurons to novelty: Circuit mechanisms shaping courtship evolution.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2025Review
- High-resolution single-cell analyses reveal evolutionary constraints and evolvability of sexual circuits inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Evolutionary basis of intermale sexual behavior by multiple pheromone switches inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Tissue-specific metabolomic signatures for aRoyal Society open science · 2025Article
- Sexually-dimorphic neurons in theResearch square · 2025Article
- Sexually-dimorphic neurons in thebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Evolution of neural circuits in the origin of behavioral novelty.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2025Article
- Neurons Underlying Aggression-Like Actions That Are Shared by Both Males and Females inThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Ancestral neural circuits potentiate the origin of a female sexual behavior in Drosophila.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Article
- The role ofScience advances · 2024Article
- Ancestral neural circuits potentiate the origin of a female sexual behavior.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Asexuality in Drosophila juvenile males is organizational and independent of juvenile hormone.EMBO reports · 2023Article
- Neural Control of Action Selection Among Innate Behaviors.Neuroscience bulletin · 2022Review
- TheProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Mutations in trpγ, the homologue of TRPC6 autism candidate gene, causes autism-like behavioral deficits in Drosophila.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Article
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8 authors.
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Abstract
Courtship in Drosophila melanogaster offers a powerful experimental paradigm for the study of innate sexually dimorphic behaviors [1, 2]. Fruit fly males exhibit an elaborate courtship display toward a potential mate [1, 2]. Females never actively court males, but their response to the male's display determines whether mating will actually occur. Sex-specific behaviors are hardwired into the nervous system via the actions of the sex determination genes doublesex (dsx) and fruitless (fru) [1]. Activation of male-specific dsx/fru(+) P1 neurons in the brain initiates the male's courtship display [3, 4], suggesting that neurons unique to males trigger this sex-specific behavior. In females, dsx(+) neurons play a pivotal role in sexual receptivity and post-mating behaviors [1, 2, 5-9]. Yet it is still unclear how dsx(+) neurons and dimorphisms in these circuits give rise to the different behaviors displayed by males and females. Here, we manipulated the function of dsx(+) neurons in the female brain to investigate higher-order neurons that drive female behaviors. Surprisingly, we found that activation of female dsx(+) neurons in the brain induces females to behave like males by promoting male-typical courtship behaviors. Activated females display courtship toward conspecific males or females, as well other Drosophila species. We uncovered specific dsx(+) neurons critical for driving male courtship and identified pheromones that trigger such behaviors in activated females. While male courtship behavior was thought to arise from male-specific central neurons, our study shows that the female brain is equipped with latent courtship circuitry capable of inducing this male-specific behavioral program.
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