Mushroom Bodies and Post-Mating Behaviors ofDrosophila MelanogasterFemales

Abstract

After mating, Drosophila melanogaster females lay substantially more eggs and mate rarely. Central to these changes is Sex peptide (SP), a male peptide transferred into the female during copulation. Injected into virgins, SP induces the same post mating response as observed after mating. In this study we investigated the role of the mushroom body (MB) in the SP response system. The SP response of females with either chemically ablated or mutant MBs was analyzed. After injection of SP, females with chemically ablated MBs reduce their receptivity and increase their ovulation and oviposition to the level of females with intact MBs. Virgin females with ablated MBs, however, show a constitutively elevated oviposition rate. Hence in untreated females, MBs are not implicated in the SP-induced reduction of receptivity and increase of ovulation. However, they depress the oviposition rate of virgins. Thus, SP has two functions for oviposition: it de-represses the MB-dependent block on the egg laying activity of virgins and additionally stimulates oviposition. SP-injected mushroom body miniature (mbm) females lay fewer eggs, ovulate less frequently, and mate more often than wild-type females. A model of the putative role of MBs and the gene product of mbm in SP-induced oviposition is presented.

Sex-peptides: seminal peptides of the Drosophila male

“…Thus, the elevated mating rate of dunce females can be attributed at least in part to their inability to respond to SP. The receptivity response of dunce females can be restored by ectopically expressing a dunce wild-type gene in transgenic females shortly before SP injection [56]. Injection of SP into these females reduces their remating rate.…”

“…If SP acts as a peptide hormone, it may be unable to trigger the 'second messenger' system of the cells in dunce females because of the already elevated levels of intracellular cAMP. The elevated cAMP level may render the cells unable to process the SP signal either because of detection problems at the receptor end, or because of habituation problems at the effector end [55,56].…”

“…The MBs are involved in olfactory learning and memory [59], in visual learning [60] and in courtship behaviour [61]. Since the SP-induced receptivity response is affected in dunce mutants, Fleischmann et al [56] investigated the role of the MBs in the SP response cascade. Each MB is made up of about 2400 -3000 Kenyon cells [59].…”

She’s my girl - male accessory gland products and their function in the reproductive biology of social bees

“…Through this pathway, sex peptide then controls the oogenic cycle in the ovaries (Soller et al, 1997). Sex-peptide binding sites in the mushroom bodies appear to be the anatomical correlates for the post-copulatory behavioral changes, such as the decrease in female receptivity (Fleischmann et al, 2001).…”

Protein content and pattern during mucus gland maturation and its ecdysteroid control in honey bee drones

“…Sex peptide binding sites detected in the mushroom bodies appear to be the anatomical correlates for the postcopulatory behavioral 258 N.A. Colonello, K. Hartfelder changes, such as the decrease in female receptivity (Fleischmann et al, 2001). …”