Genetic feminization of the thoracic nervous system disrupts courtship song in male Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: Despite the growing research investigating the sex-specific organization of courtship behavior in Drosophila melanogaster, much remains to be understood about the sex-specific organization of the motor circuit that drives this behavior. To investigate the sex-specification of a tightly patterned component of courtship behavior, courtship song, the authors used the GAL4/UAS targeted gene expression system to feminize the ventral ganglia in male Drosophila and analyzed the acoustic properties of courtship song. More specifically, the authors used the thoracic-specifying teashirt promoter (tsh(GAL4)) to express feminizing transgenes specifically in the ventral ganglia. When tsh(GAL4) drove expression of transformer (tra), males were unable to produce prolonged wing extensions. Transgenic expr

SUBMITTER: Rubinstein CD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3056398 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature