Reported Drosophila courtship song rhythms are artifacts of data analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In a series of landmark papers, Kyriacou, Hall, and colleagues reported that the average inter-pulse interval of Drosophila melanogaster male courtship song varies rhythmically (KH cycles), that the period gene controls this rhythm, and that evolution of the period gene determines species differences in the rhythm's frequency. Several groups failed to recover KH cycles, but this may have resulted from differences in recording chamber size.

Results

Here, using recording chambers of the same dimensions as used by Kyriacou and Hall, I found no compelling evidence for KH cycles at any frequency. By replicating the data analysis procedures employed by Kyriacou and Hall, I found that two factors--data binned into 10-second intervals and short recordings--imposed non-sig

SUBMITTER: Stern DL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4071150 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature