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INVESTIGATING THE MECHANISM OF COURTSHIP ACCEPTANCE IN DROSOPHILA

Schinaman, Joseph Moeller

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Biology.
Courtship is a behavior common to many species in which members of one gender advertise to the other their species identity and overall fitness. In many species, the male courts the female, and the male’s courtship display provides a complex array of auditory, visual and olfactory information to the courted female, which must be decoded to generate the decision to accept or reject the potential mate. However, despite the centrality of courtship behavior to the evolution and maintenance of species, relatively little is known about the genetic and neural circuitry underlying female mate choice. To investigate this process in detail, we have analyzed the courtship acceptance behavior of Drosophila melanogaster, a species in which females are presented with multimodal sensory information during courtship. In this work, we show that Drosophila females mutant for the Kruppel-like transcription factor datilografo (dati) are incapable of accepting males, despite eliciting normal courtship from them. To facilitate further study of this gene’s role in patterning the brain for acceptance behavior, we used a novel system to perform clonal analyses of genes on the fourth chromosome, the genomic location of dati. The analysis of Drosophila females bearing labelled patches of dati mutant tissue throughout the brain revealed three regions where this transcription factor is required for normal acceptance behavior: the antennal lobe of the anterior brain, and two regions flanking the lateral 2 horn in the posterior brain. These regions encompass areas of olfactory signal processing and sensory integration, respectively. In addition to the experiments above, we carried out an RNA interference screen to determine the neurotransmitter profile of dati neurons required for female acceptance behavior. This screen revealed that dati is required in cholinergic neurons. Finally, to determine precisely the position and number of individual neurons that mediate female acceptance behavior in the regions identified, we determined which dati neurons were cholinergic. Ultimately we found around 60 neuron spread across three regions. In whole, this work highlights indispensable and tractably-sized areas of the overall courtship acceptance circuit, and supports a stimuli-summation mechanism of courtship acceptance.
Claudia Mizutani, PhD (Advisor)
Rui Sousa-Nves, PhD (Advisor)
Peter Harte, PhD (Committee Member)
Mark Willis , PhD (Committee Member)
166 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Schinaman, J. M. (2015). INVESTIGATING THE MECHANISM OF COURTSHIP ACCEPTANCE IN DROSOPHILA [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1436446103

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Schinaman, Joseph. INVESTIGATING THE MECHANISM OF COURTSHIP ACCEPTANCE IN DROSOPHILA. 2015. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1436446103.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Schinaman, Joseph. "INVESTIGATING THE MECHANISM OF COURTSHIP ACCEPTANCE IN DROSOPHILA." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1436446103

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)