When Choice Makes Sense: Menthol Influence on Mating, Oviposition and Fecundity in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

The environment to which insects have been exposed as larvae and adults can affect subsequent behaviors, such as mating, oviposition, food preference or fitness. Experience can change female preference for oviposition, particularly in phytophagous insects. In Drosophila melanogaster, females avoid laying eggs on menthol rich-food when given the choice. Exposure to menthol during larval development reduces this aversion. However, this observation was not reproduced in the following generation. Recently, we have shown that oviposition-site preference (OSP) differs between wild-type D. melanogaster lines freely or forcibly exposed to menthol. After 12 generations, menthol “forced” lines still exhibit a persistent aversion to menthol whereas ‘free-choice’ lines show a decreased aversion for menthol rich-food. Here, we compare courtship behavior, mating and female fecundity in “forced” and “free-choice” lines, raised either on menthol rich-food (Menthol-lines) or on menthol-free food (Plain-lines). “Forced” males did not discriminate between decapitated virgin females of the two lines. They courted and mated with intact females of both “forced” lines in a comparable rate. However “forced” M-line males did mate significantly more rapidly with “forced” M-line females. In the “free-choice” procedure, P-line males show a similar pattern as “forced” males for discrimination ability and courtship. M-line males courted significantly more M-line females. Both ‘free-choice’ lines males mated significantly more with females of their own line. Female fecundity was assessed during 10 days in ‘free-choice’ lines. Menthol-line females laid more eggs during the first 4 days than female Plain-lines and parental control-line. The total number of eggs laid during the first 10 days of female adult life is comparable in M-line and parental control line. However, Menthol-line females laid eggs earlier than both parental control and Plain-lines. Our findings show that in D. melanogaster, as for OSP, mating and fecundity are more rapidly influenced when flies have a choice between alternative resources compared to flies permanently exposed to menthol.

Internal state affects local neuron function in an early sensory processing center to shape olfactory behavior in Drosophila larvae

“…4 I; light blue data points). We also tested the degree of larval aversion to menthol (10 –2 vol:vol), an aversive odor for Drosophila larvae 38 , 39 . Since menthol is a ligand for OSN::49a, which makes no direct connections to Keystone-LN 7 , and since menthol stimulation elicited a very low physiological response in Keystone-LN (Fig.…”

“…2 ). The attractive odorant, 4-hexen-3-one, and the aversive odorant, menthol, used in this study are sensed by OSNs expressing Or42a and Or49a, respectively 22 , 24 , 38 , 39 . According to the larval olfactory circuit connectivity map, Keystone-LN makes at least 4 synaptic connections with OSN::42a (highest among OSNs) and 10 synaptic connections with uPN42a (second highest among PNs) (Fig.…”

Effect of solvent extraction time on the hydrocarbon profile of Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) and behavioural effects of 9-pentacosene and dodecane

“…A 4-day-old unmated female and unmated male was transferred using a pooter without anaesthesia into a watch glass courtship arena (4 cm internal diameter) (Vieillard & Cortot, 2016). Interactions between the two fl ies were video recorded for 60 min.…”

Drosophila menthol sensitivity and the Precambrian origins of transient receptor potential-dependent chemosensation

“…Given that there is considerable latency to roll in response to menthol (figure 2d), it is unclear if the aversive rolling behaviour is protective. Menthol sensing may be more important for adult females, which rather carefully select egg-laying sites and show aversion towards mentholated food [5]. Yet residues critical to menthol sensitivity substantially predate the emergence of Lamiaceae, the family of angiosperms that most notably produce menthol [92,93].…”

“…That said, what is pleasant, harmful, or potentially painful will often be species-dependent. It has been previously reported that menthol affects the behaviour of insects; for example, menthol-infused foods are aversive to Drosophila melanogaster, and there is some evidence that menthol functions as an insecticide [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. However, relatively little is known concerning the mechanisms by which insects sense and respond to the cooling agents, as previous studies have focused largely on deuterostomes, and, with respect to molecular determinants among those species, chiefly on terrestrial chordates [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”