Sight of parasitoid wasps accelerates sexual behavior and upregulates a micropeptide gene in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: Parasitoid wasps inflict widespread death upon the insect world. Hundreds of thousands of parasitoid wasp species kill a vast range of insect species. Insects have evolved defensive responses to the threat of wasps, some cellular and some behavioral. Here we find an unexpected response of adult Drosophila to the presence of certain parasitoid wasps: accelerated mating behavior. Flies exposed to certain wasp species begin mating more quickly. The effect is mediated via changes in the behavior of the female fly and depends on visual perception. The sight of wasps induces the dramatic upregulation in the fly nervous system of a gene that encodes a 41-amino acid micropeptide. Mutational analysis reveals that the gene is essential to the behavioral response of the fly. Our work provides a found

SUBMITTER: Ebrahim SAM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8079388 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature