Baoxu Ma1,2 • Rencong Wang1,2 • Yaohua Liu3 • Bowen Deng4 • Tao Wang1 • Fengming Wu1,2 • Chuan Zhou1,2,5

1 State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 3 Department of Plant Protection, Shanxi Agricultural University, Jinzhong 30801, China 4 Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Zhongguancun Life Sciences Park, Beijing 102206, China 5 Institute of Molecular Physiology, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518132, China

 

Abstract

    The choice of females to accept or reject male courtship is a critical decision for animal reproduction. Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) has been found to regulate sexual behavior in many species, but it is unclear how 5-HT and its receptors function to regulate diferent aspects of sexual behavior. Here we used Drosophila melanogaster as the model animal to investigate how 5-HT and its receptors modulate female sexual receptivity. We found that knockout of tryptophan hydroxylase (Trh), which is involved in the biosynthesis of 5-HT, severely reduced virgin female receptivity without afecting post-mating behaviors. We identifed a subset of sexually dimorphic Trh neurons that co-expressed fruitless (fru), in which the activity was

 

 

Keywords

    Female sexual receptivity; Serotonin; 5-HT; Fruitless; Neurochemical; 5-HT receptors; Drosophila

 

 

[SpringerLink]