How do evolved genetic changes alter the nervous system to produce different patterns of behavior? We address this question using Drosophila male courtship behavior, which is innate, stereotyped, and evolves rapidly between species. D. melanogaster male courtship requires the male-specific isoforms of two transcription factors, fruitless and doublesex. These genes underlie genetic switches betw...

A hypothetical connection between gender identity disorder and courtship disorder was investigated in 274 heterosexual male patients of the following types: nontransvestic fetishists for female attire; transvestic fetishists; patients with gender identity disorder of adolescence and adulthood, nontranssexual type; and transsexuals. Of these patients, 53 had also demonstrated one or more of the ...

Courtship in Drosophila is used already to screen genes linked to memory-deficiency and neurodegeneration in humans. However the research community does not understand the mechanism which gives rise to courtship patterns. When a male fly encounters a female fly, he starts to follow her, licks her genitalia, sings a courtship song and eventually bends his abdomen to reach her genitalia [1]. Male...

We have evaluated the role of the Drosophila mushroom bodies (MBs) in courtship conditioning, in which experience with mated females causes males to reduce their courtship toward virgins (Siegel and Hall, 1979). Whereas previous studies indicated that MB ablation abolished learning in an olfactory conditioning paradigm (deBelle and Heisenberg, 1994), MB-ablated males were able to learn in the c...

Neuromodulators influence the activities of collections of neurons and have profound impacts on animal behavior. Male courtship drive is complex and subject to neuromodulatory control. Using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, we identified neurons in the brain (inferior posterior slope; IPS) that impact courtship drive and were controlled by tyramine-a biogenic amine related to dopamine, wh...

The evolutionary effects of crowding on male courtship behavior were studied using wild and mass-reared medflies. Mass-reared strains had been raised under highly crowded conditions in mass-rearing facilities for approximately 75, 180, and 238 generations. Pre-mounting courtship was facultatively shortened in both wild and mass-reared males under conditions of greater crowding. The courtship be...

Traditional models of sexual selection posit that male courtship signals evolve as indicators of underlying male genetic quality. An alternative hypothesis is that sexual conflict over mating generates antagonistic coevolution between male courtship persistence and female resistance. In the scarabaeine dung beetle Onthophagus taurus, females are more likely to mate with males that have high cou...

We determined the cellular substrate for male courtship behavior by quasinatural and artificial stimulation of brain neurons. Activation of fruitless (fru)-expressing neurons via stimulation of thermosensitive dTrpA1 channels induced an entire series of courtship acts in male Drosophila placed alone without any courting target. By reducing the number of neurons expressing dTrpA1 by MARCM, we de...

The pre-existing trait hypothesis suggests that females evolve a mating preference for an already existing male trait. This hypothesis poses a simple resolution to Darwin's long-standing question of how elaborate, male display traits evolve. The frequently observed convergence of aggressive and courtship displays across a wide array of species provides the only current support for this hypothes...