Is mate choice in Drosophila males guided by olfactory or gustatory pheromones?

Abstract

Drosophila melanogaster flies use both olfactory and taste systems to detect sex pheromones and select the most suitable mate for reproduction. In nature, flies often face multiple potential partners and should have an acute sensory ability to discriminate between different pheromonal bouquets. We investigated both the pheromones and the chemosensory neurons influencing Drosophila mate choice. We measured various courtship traits in single tester males simultaneously presented with two target male and/or female flies carrying different pheromonal bouquets (pairs of control flies of the same or different sex, same-sex target pairs of pheromonal variant strains). The courtship traits reflected the perception of either olfactory cues perceived before or gustatory cues perceived after the first physical taste contact. Our results suggest that male mate choice exists in D. melanogaster and that male discrimination between potential mates could be a two-step process involving chemical cues perceived before and after the first gustatory contact. In addition, when a male was simultaneously presented with two potential sexual partners, the olfactory and gustatory cues he used depended on the pheromonal patterns of both flies, but his response could also depend on additional effects resulting from the simultaneous perception of the two flies, leading to a nonlinear choice of a sexual partner. Moreover, some tester males with genetically altered gustatory receptor neurons strongly changed their partner preference, indicating that the fly's peripheral nervous system is essential for pheromonal detection and mate choice

Sexual Behavior of Drosophila suzukii

“…In D. melanogaster , olfactory input is important for male mating behavior [ 44 ] and short chain volatile CHCs [ 19 ] are partly detected via the antennae [ 45 ]. We therefore assayed male courtship and mating after ablation of their antennae to investigate a possible effect of female-derived olfactory signals.…”

desat1

“…5 This defect maybe caused by the altered olfactory perception of non-sex specific pheromones potentially volatile (ur-pheromones). 37,38 Another EP element inserted antisens in the PRR(RD), strongly decreasing the levels of RA, RC and RB transcripts in the head, did not induce a similar behavioral defect. 5 We believe that PRR(RA) and PRR(RD) are differently expressed in the PI since they differently affected male CHs, when combined with the desat1 RNAi transgene.…”

Divergence of premating behaviors in the closely related species Drosophila subquinaria and D. recens

“…), visual information (Spieth ), gustatory and tactile signals that are sensed through tapping and licking (Everaerts et al. ), and chemical pheromones, which are sensed through olfactory pathways (Amrein ). The relative importance of particular cues may differ between the sexes (Ferveur ).…”

“…Drosophila integrate several different sensory modalities during courtship (Krstic et al 2009), which are involved in both species recognition and sexual selection. For example, these can include visual wing displays and auditory wing songs (Blyth et al 2008), visual information (Spieth 1974), gustatory and tactile signals that are sensed through tapping and licking (Everaerts et al 2010), and chemical pheromones, which are sensed through olfactory pathways (Amrein 2004). The relative importance of particular cues may differ between the sexes (Ferveur 2010).…”