Male courtship song drives escape responses that are suppressed for successful mating

Abstract

Persuasion is a crucial component of the courtship ritual needed to overcome contact aversion. In fruit flies, it is well established that the male courtship song prompts receptivity in female flies, in part by causing sexually mature females to slow down and pause, allowing copulation. Whether the above receptivity behaviours require the suppression of contact avoidance or escape remains unknown. Here we show, through genetic manipulation of neurons we identified as required for female receptivity, that male song induces avoidance/escape responses that are suppressed in wild type flies. First, we show that silencing 70A09 neurons leads to an increase in escape, as females increase their walking speed during courtship together with an increase in jumping and a reduction in pausing. The increase in escape response is specific to courtship, as escape to a looming threat is not intensified. Activation of 70A09 neurons leads to pausing, confirming the role of these neurons in escape modulation. Finally, we show that the escape displays by the female result from the presence of a courting male and more specifically from the song produced by a courting male. Our results suggest that courtship song has a dual role, promoting both escape and pause in females and that escape is suppressed by the activity of 70A09 neurons, allowing mating to occur.

Generating parallel representations of position and identity in the olfactory system

“…This may be used by females during different courtship contexts, e.g. for turning away from a male to escape (Arez et al, 2021), or to bend the female's abdomen towards the male (Ning et al, 2022). Males likely also use cVA-based spatial information to localize other males during fighting.…”

On the expression of reproductive plasticity inDrosophila melanogasterfemales in spatial and socially varying environments!

“…Alternatively, as females do play an active role in shaping the length of copulation (Bretman et al 2013, Edward et al 2014) they may be more motivated to end mating sooner in the presence of another potential mate. Interestingly, the acoustic signal of male courtship songs triggers an escape response in females (Arez et al 2021), so if the second male courts the mating female (something that occurs frequently - see Dukas 2020) this might conceivably lead to in an increased chance of earlier termination. Matings that occurred in smaller chambers were marginally shorter than those that happened in the larger arenas (; Cliff’s delta=0.202 [0.050, 0.345]), possibly as it was more difficult for females to dislodge males in the more confined area.…”