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Sex-determining genes distinctly regulate courtship capability and target preference via sexually dimorphic neurons

For successful mating, a male animal must execute effective courtship behaviors toward a receptive target sex, which is female. Whether the courtship execution capability and upregulation of courtship toward females are specified through separable sex-determining genetic pathways remains uncharacter...

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Autores principales: Ishii, Kenichi, Wohl, Margot, DeSouza, Andre, Asahina, Kenta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7173972/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32314964
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.52701
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author Ishii, Kenichi
Wohl, Margot
DeSouza, Andre
Asahina, Kenta
author_facet Ishii, Kenichi
Wohl, Margot
DeSouza, Andre
Asahina, Kenta
author_sort Ishii, Kenichi
collection PubMed
description For successful mating, a male animal must execute effective courtship behaviors toward a receptive target sex, which is female. Whether the courtship execution capability and upregulation of courtship toward females are specified through separable sex-determining genetic pathways remains uncharacterized. Here, we found that one of the two Drosophila sex-determining genes, doublesex (dsx), specifies a male-specific neuronal component that serves as an execution mechanism for courtship behavior, whereas fruitless (fru) is required for enhancement of courtship behavior toward females. The dsx-dependent courtship execution mechanism includes a specific subclass within a neuronal cluster that co-express dsx and fru. This cluster contains at least another subclass that is specified cooperatively by both dsx and fru. Although these neuronal populations can also promote aggressive behavior toward male flies, this capacity requires fru-dependent mechanisms. Our results uncover how sex-determining genes specify execution capability and female-specific enhancement of courtship behavior through separable yet cooperative neurogenetic mechanisms.
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spelling pubmed-71739722020-04-23 Sex-determining genes distinctly regulate courtship capability and target preference via sexually dimorphic neurons Ishii, Kenichi Wohl, Margot DeSouza, Andre Asahina, Kenta eLife Genetics and Genomics For successful mating, a male animal must execute effective courtship behaviors toward a receptive target sex, which is female. Whether the courtship execution capability and upregulation of courtship toward females are specified through separable sex-determining genetic pathways remains uncharacterized. Here, we found that one of the two Drosophila sex-determining genes, doublesex (dsx), specifies a male-specific neuronal component that serves as an execution mechanism for courtship behavior, whereas fruitless (fru) is required for enhancement of courtship behavior toward females. The dsx-dependent courtship execution mechanism includes a specific subclass within a neuronal cluster that co-express dsx and fru. This cluster contains at least another subclass that is specified cooperatively by both dsx and fru. Although these neuronal populations can also promote aggressive behavior toward male flies, this capacity requires fru-dependent mechanisms. Our results uncover how sex-determining genes specify execution capability and female-specific enhancement of courtship behavior through separable yet cooperative neurogenetic mechanisms. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2020-04-21 /pmc/articles/PMC7173972/ /pubmed/32314964 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.52701 Text en © 2020, Ishii et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Genetics and Genomics
Ishii, Kenichi
Wohl, Margot
DeSouza, Andre
Asahina, Kenta
Sex-determining genes distinctly regulate courtship capability and target preference via sexually dimorphic neurons
title Sex-determining genes distinctly regulate courtship capability and target preference via sexually dimorphic neurons
title_full Sex-determining genes distinctly regulate courtship capability and target preference via sexually dimorphic neurons
title_fullStr Sex-determining genes distinctly regulate courtship capability and target preference via sexually dimorphic neurons
title_full_unstemmed Sex-determining genes distinctly regulate courtship capability and target preference via sexually dimorphic neurons
title_short Sex-determining genes distinctly regulate courtship capability and target preference via sexually dimorphic neurons
title_sort sex-determining genes distinctly regulate courtship capability and target preference via sexually dimorphic neurons
topic Genetics and Genomics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7173972/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32314964
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.52701
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