The white gene controls copulation success in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Characteristics of male courtship behavior in Drosophila melanogaster have been well-described, but the genetic basis of male-female copulation is largely unknown. Here we show that the white (w) gene, a classical gene for eye color, is associated with copulation success. 82.5% of wild-type Canton-S flies copulated within 60 minutes in circular arenas, whereas few white-eyed mutants mated successfully. The w + allele exchanged to the X chromosome or duplicated to the Y chromosome in the white-eyed genetic background rescued the defect of copulation success. The w +-associated copulation success was independent of eye color phenotype. Addition of the mini-white (mw +) gene to the white-eyed mutant rescued the defect of copulation success in a manner that was mw + copy number-dependent. Lastly, male-female sexual experience mimicked the effects of w +/mw + in improving successful copulation. These data suggest that the w + gene controls copulation success in Drosophila melanogaster.

Mechanical incompatibility caused by modifications of multiple male genital structures using genomic introgression inDrosophila*

“…The white ( w ) mutant flies are known to show longer copulation latency (time until copulation initiation) than wild‐type flies (Xiao et al. ). However, the effects on copulation duration or mobility during copulation (the traits of our interest in the present study) have not been reported, and as all our tested introgression lines had the same w mutant background, this mutation likely had little effect on our results.…”

“…Another study showed that ectopic w + insertions accompanying the construction of transgenes can rescue the effect on copulation latency (Xiao et al. ) as well as enhance male−male courtship behavior (Zhang and Odenwald ; Hing and Carlson ). However, the effects on copulation duration or mobility are not known.…”

CRISPR/Cas9‐mediated knockout of the eye pigmentation gene white leads to alterations in colour of head spots in the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis

“…In addition, White transports second messengers and many small molecules (Sullivan et al ., ; Evans et al ., ). Consequently, previous researchers have proposed that this gene may influence a range of behavioural and physiological pathways in insects, such as phototactic personality (Kain et al ., ), courtship and mating (Zhang and Odenwald, ; Anaka et al ., ; Dimitrije et al ., ; Xiao et al ., ;), learning (Diegelmann et al ., ) and hypersensitivity to ethanol (Chan et al ., ). In the noctuid moth Helicoverpa armigera , homozygous white knockouts were lethal in the embryo (Khan et al ., ).…”

Phenotype-dependent habitat choice is too weak to cause assortative mating between Drosophila melanogaster strains differing in light sensitivity

“…This is because although biologically functional, white-eyed Drosophila suffer from a series of neurological disadvantages other than poor vision due to their malfunctioning white protein. These include reduced spatial memory [50], low copulation success [41] and progressive locomotor deficiencies [42]. For this reason, care should be taken when interpreting results from behavioral tests using these (and other) mutants, and it seems reasonable to expect that handling would negatively affect white-eyed flies more.…”