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Interactions between the sexual identity of the nervous system and the social environment mediate lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster
Sex differences in lifespan are ubiquitous, but the underlying causal factors remain poorly understood. Inter- and intrasexual social interactions are well known to influence lifespan in many taxa, but it has proved challenging to separate the role of sex-specific behaviours from wider physiological...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Royal Society
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6283938/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30487307 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.1450 |
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author | Flintham, Ewan O. Yoshida, Tomoyo Smith, Sophie Pavlou, Hania J. Goodwin, Stephen F. Carazo, Pau Wigby, Stuart |
author_facet | Flintham, Ewan O. Yoshida, Tomoyo Smith, Sophie Pavlou, Hania J. Goodwin, Stephen F. Carazo, Pau Wigby, Stuart |
author_sort | Flintham, Ewan O. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Sex differences in lifespan are ubiquitous, but the underlying causal factors remain poorly understood. Inter- and intrasexual social interactions are well known to influence lifespan in many taxa, but it has proved challenging to separate the role of sex-specific behaviours from wider physiological differences between the sexes. To address this problem, we genetically manipulated the sexual identity of the nervous system—and hence sexual behaviour—in Drosophila melanogaster, and measured lifespan under varying social conditions. Consistent with previous studies, masculinization of the nervous system in females induced male-specific courtship behaviour and aggression, while nervous system feminization in males induced male–male courtship and reduced aggression. Control females outlived males, but masculinized female groups displayed male-like lifespans and male-like costs of group living. By varying the mixture of control and masculinized females within social groups, we show that male-specific behaviours are costly to recipients, even when received from females. However, consistent with recent findings, our data suggest courtship expression to be surprisingly low cost. Overall, our study indicates that nervous system-mediated expression of sex-specific behaviour per se—independent of wider physiological differences between the sexes, or the receipt of aggression or courtship—plays a limited role in mediating sex differences in lifespan. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6283938 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | The Royal Society |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-62839382018-12-07 Interactions between the sexual identity of the nervous system and the social environment mediate lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster Flintham, Ewan O. Yoshida, Tomoyo Smith, Sophie Pavlou, Hania J. Goodwin, Stephen F. Carazo, Pau Wigby, Stuart Proc Biol Sci Evolution Sex differences in lifespan are ubiquitous, but the underlying causal factors remain poorly understood. Inter- and intrasexual social interactions are well known to influence lifespan in many taxa, but it has proved challenging to separate the role of sex-specific behaviours from wider physiological differences between the sexes. To address this problem, we genetically manipulated the sexual identity of the nervous system—and hence sexual behaviour—in Drosophila melanogaster, and measured lifespan under varying social conditions. Consistent with previous studies, masculinization of the nervous system in females induced male-specific courtship behaviour and aggression, while nervous system feminization in males induced male–male courtship and reduced aggression. Control females outlived males, but masculinized female groups displayed male-like lifespans and male-like costs of group living. By varying the mixture of control and masculinized females within social groups, we show that male-specific behaviours are costly to recipients, even when received from females. However, consistent with recent findings, our data suggest courtship expression to be surprisingly low cost. Overall, our study indicates that nervous system-mediated expression of sex-specific behaviour per se—independent of wider physiological differences between the sexes, or the receipt of aggression or courtship—plays a limited role in mediating sex differences in lifespan. The Royal Society 2018-12-05 2018-11-28 /pmc/articles/PMC6283938/ /pubmed/30487307 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.1450 Text en © 2018 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Evolution Flintham, Ewan O. Yoshida, Tomoyo Smith, Sophie Pavlou, Hania J. Goodwin, Stephen F. Carazo, Pau Wigby, Stuart Interactions between the sexual identity of the nervous system and the social environment mediate lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster |
title | Interactions between the sexual identity of the nervous system and the social environment mediate lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster |
title_full | Interactions between the sexual identity of the nervous system and the social environment mediate lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster |
title_fullStr | Interactions between the sexual identity of the nervous system and the social environment mediate lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster |
title_full_unstemmed | Interactions between the sexual identity of the nervous system and the social environment mediate lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster |
title_short | Interactions between the sexual identity of the nervous system and the social environment mediate lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster |
title_sort | interactions between the sexual identity of the nervous system and the social environment mediate lifespan in drosophila melanogaster |
topic | Evolution |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6283938/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30487307 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.1450 |
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