Item

Abstract

During courtship, Dro.wphilu melanogaster males direct a pattern of sex-specific behaviour toward a potential mate. Male tlies are essentially promiscuous and will attempt to court almost anything about their own size and moving, whereupon pheromonal and other cues determine whether courtship of potentially receptive (virgin fe- male) or unreceptive (fertilized female, male) targets will continue. Although specific structures in the brain have not been identified. mosaic analysis suggests that the posterior dorsal region of the brain must be male for courtship initiation to occur. The decision making process concerning the continuation of courtship beyond ini- tiation has not been neuroanatomically localized. The mushroom bodies (MBs) are structures in the brain that mediate associative odor learning in flies. Here we address the question of whether or not the MBs also play an important role in Drosophilu male courtship by comparing the behaviour of courting wild-type Cunton-S (CS) males with that of MB-less CS flies generated by hydroxyurea (HU)-ablation and the MB structural mutant mushroom-bod~-miniuture (mbm). Wild type males court virgin females energetically, spend significantly less time courting fertilized females. and rarely court adult males. Perhaps suprisingly, courtship behaviour is relatively unaffected by MB ablation in CS males. although these flies appear to court fertilized females slightly more vigorously. mbm males also display courtship behaviour similar to that of wild-type males, although courtship intensity is reduced. These results suggest that MBs do not play an important role in male courtship behaviour. Interestingly, HU-treated mbm males direct little or no courtship towards any target fly, male or female.