Abstract
Male–male courtship is infrequent among mature adult Drosophila melanogaster. After pairs of mature adult males expressing a temperature-sensitive allele of the ecdysone receptor (EcR) gene were treated at a restrictive temperature, however, they engaged in elevated levels of male–male courtship. EcR-deficient males courted wildtype males and females, but were not courted by wildtype males. These results suggest that the ecdysone steroid hormone system may have a role in courtship initiation by adult male fruit flies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Bancroft J (2005) The endocrinology of sexual arousal. J Endocrinol 186(3):411–427
Bender M, Imam FB, Talbot WS, Ganetzky B, Hogness DS (1997) Drosophila ecdysone receptor mutations reveal functional differences among receptor isoforms. Cell 91(6):777–788
Buszczak M, Segraves WA (2000) Insect metamorphosis: out with the old, in with the new. Curr Biol 10(22):830–833
Butterworth FM (1969) Lipids of Drosophila: a newly detected lipid in the male. Science 163(873):1356–1357
Cancela L, Nemere I, Norman AW (1988) 1 alpha,25(OH)2 vitamin D3: a steroid hormone capable of producing pleiotropic receptor-mediated biological responses by both genomic and nongenomic mechanisms. J Steroid Biochem 30(1):33–39
Carney GE, Bender M (2000) The Drosophila ecdysone receptor (EcR) gene is required maternally for normal oogenesis. Genetics 154(3):1203–1211
Chen S, Lee AY, Bowens NM, Huber R, Kravitz EA (2002) Fighting fruit flies: a model system for the study of aggression. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99(8):5664–5668
Cherbas L, Hu X, Zhimulev I, Belyaeva E, Cherbas P (2003) EcR isoforms in Drosophila: testing tissue-specific requirements by targeted blockade and rescue. Development 130(2):271–284
Colombani J, Bianchini L, Layalle S, Pondeville E, Dauphin-Villemant C, Antoniewski C, Carre C, Noselli S, Leopold P (2005) Antagonistic actions of ecdysone and insulins determine final size in Drosophila. Science 310(5748):667–670
Consoulas C, Duch C, Bayline RJ, Levine RB (2000) Behavioral transformations during metamorphosis: remodeling of neural and motor systems. Brain Res Bull 53(5):571–583
de Kloet ER (2003) Hormones, brain and stress. Endocr Regul 37(2):51–68
Eckel LA (2004) Estradiol: a rhythmic, inhibitory, indirect control of meal size. Physiol Behav 82(1):35–41
Ejima A, Smith BPC, Lucas C, Levine JD, Griffith LC (2005) Sequential learning of pheromonal cues modulates memory consolidation in trainer-specific associative courtship conditioning. Curr Biol 15 (3):194–206
Engelmann F (2002) Ecdysteroids, juvenile hormone and vitellogenesis in the cockroach Leucophaea maderae. J Insect Sci 2:20
Freeman MR, Dobritsa A, Gaines P, Segraves WA, Carlson JR (1999) The dare gene: steroid hormone production, olfactory behavior, and neural degeneration in Drosophila. Development 126:4591–4602
Funder JW (2005) The nongenomic actions of aldosterone. Endocr Rev 26(3):313–321
Gailey DA, Hall JC (1989) Behavior and cytogenetics of fruitless in Drosophila melanogaster: different courtship defects caused by separate, closely linked lesions. Genetics 121(4):773–785. Erratum in: Genetics 122(2):465
Handler AM (1982) Ecdysteroid titers during pupal and adult development in Drosophila melanogaster. Dev Biol 93(1):73–82
Lee T, Marticke S, Sung C, Robinow S, Luo L (2000) Cell-autonomous requirement of the USP/EcR-B ecdysone receptor for mushroom body neuronal remodeling in Drosophila. Neuron 28(3):807–818
Losel RM, Falkenstein E, Feuring M, Schultz A, Tillmann HC, Rossol-Haseroth K, Wehling M (2003) Nongenomic steroid action: controversies, questions, and answers. Physiol Rev 83(3):965–1016
McBride SM, Giuliani G, Choi C, Krause P, Correale D, Watson K, Baker G, Siwicki KK (1999) Mushroom body ablation impairs short-term memory and long-term memory of courtship conditioning in Drosophila melanogaster. Neuron 24(4):967–977
Nilsen SP, Chan YB, Huber R, Kravitz EA (2004) Gender-selective patterns of aggressive behavior in Drosophila melanogaster. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101(33):12342–12347
Riddiford LM, Cherbas P, Truman JW (2000) Ecdysone receptors and their biological actions. Vitam Horm 60:1–73
Riddiford LM (1993) Hormone receptors and the regulation of insect metamorphosis. Receptor 3(3):203–209
Robinow S, Talbot WS, Hogness DS, Truman JW (1993) Programmed cell death in the Drosophila CNS is ecdysone-regulated and coupled with a specific ecdysone receptor isoform. Development 119(4):1251–1259
Schubiger M, Wade AA, Carney GE, Truman JW, Bender M (1998) Drosophila EcR-B ecdysone receptor isoforms are required for larval molting and for neuron remodeling during metamorphosis. Development 125(11):2053–2062
Schubiger M, Tomita S, Sung C, Robinow S, Truman JW (2003) Isoform specific control of gene activity in vivo by the Drosophila ecdysone receptor. Mech Dev 120(8):909–918
Scott D (1986) Sexual mimicry regulates the attractiveness of mated Drosophila melanogaster females. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 83:8429–8433
Simon AF, Shih C, Mack A, Benzer S (2003) Steroid control of longevity in Drosophila melanogaster. Science 299(5611):1407–1410
Soma KK, Wingfield JC (2001) Dehydroepiandrosterone in songbird plasma: seasonal regulation and relationship to territorial aggression. Gen Comp Endocrinol 123(2):144–155
Soma KK, Schlinger BA, Wingfield JC, Saldanha CJ (2003) Brain aromatase, 5 alpha-reductase, and 5 beta-reductase change seasonally in wild male song sparrows: relationship to aggressive and sexual behavior. J Neurobiol 56(3):209–221
Sonobe H, Yamada R (2004) Ecdysteroids during early embryonic development in silkworm Bombyx mori: metabolism and functions. Zool Sci 21(5):503–516
Srivastava DP, Yu EJ, Kennedy K, Chatwin H, Reale V, Hamon M, Smith T, Evans PD (2005) Rapid, nongenomic responses to ecdysteroids and catecholamines mediated by a novel Drosophila G-protein coupled receptor. J Neurosci 25(26):6145–6155
Swevers L, Iatrou K (2003) The ecdysone regulatory cascade and ovarian development in lepidopteran insects: insights from the silkmoth paradigm. Insect Biochem Mol Biol 33(12):1285–1297
Truman JW, Riddiford LM (2002) Endocrine insights into the evolution of metamorphosis in insects. Annu Rev Entomol 47:467–500
Truman JW, Talbot WS, Fahrbach SE, Hogness DS (1994) Ecdysone receptor expression in the CNS correlates with stage-specific responses to ecdysteroids during Drosophila and Manduca development. Development 120(1):219–234
Virgin CE Jr, Sapolsky RM (1997) Styles of male social behavior and their endocrine correlates among low-ranking baboons. Am J Primatol 42(1):25–39
Zheng X, Wang J, Haerry TE, Wu AY, Martin J, O’Connor MB, Lee CH, Lee T (2003) TGF-beta signaling activates steroid hormone receptor expression during neuronal remodeling in the Drosophila brain. Cell 112(3):303–315
Acknowledgments
The authors thank YB Chan for technical advice, RL Weston for technical support, and AC Basu for helpful discussions. This work was supported by NIGMS grant # GM-067645 and NSF grant # IBN-9874608.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Edited by Yong-Kyu Kim
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ganter, G.K., Walton, K.L., Merriman, J.O. et al. Increased Male–Male Courtship in Ecdysone Receptor Deficient Adult Flies . Behav Genet 37, 507–512 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-006-9140-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-006-9140-1