2025/08/14 by Ryoya Tanaka, Yusuke Hara, Kosei Sato +8 · 1 voice · 2 citations
Neuroscience · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Immunology and Microbiology · #Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research #Animal Behavior and Reproduction #Invertebrate Immune Response Mechanisms
paper · doi:10.1126/science.adp5831
In accepting a courting male, Drosophila subobscura females require nuptial gift giving in which a male gives regurgitated crop contents to her mouth to mouth. No similar behavior is found in D. melanogaster . By clonal activation of neurons expressing the male-determinant FruM, we identified insulin-like peptide–producing cells (IPCs) and their putative postsynaptic targets, proboscis-innervating motoneurons, as those critical for gift giving. We demonstrate that loss of FruM from D. subobscura IPCs abrogates neurite extension and gift giving, whereas FruM overexpression in their D. melanogaster counterparts induces overgrowth of neurites that harbor functional synapses, culminating in increased regurgitation. We suggest that the acquisition of FruM expression by IPCs was a key event occurring in an ancestral D. subobscura that conferred a latent capability to perform nuptial gift giving.