Age, but not experience, affects courtship gene expression in male Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: Mutation screens in model organisms have helped identify the foundation of many fundamental organismal phenotypes. An emerging question in evolutionary and behavioral biology is the extent to which these "developmental" genes contribute to the subtle individual variation that characterizes natural populations. A related question is whether individual differences arise from static differences in gene expression that arose during previous life stages, or whether they are due to dynamic regulation of expression during the life stage under investigation. Here, we address these questions using genes that have been discovered to control the development of normal courtship behavior in male Drosophila melanogaster. We examined whether these genes have static or dynamic expression in the heads of a

SUBMITTER: Ruedi EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2702002 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature