A newly uncovered phenotype associated with the fruitless gene of Drosophila melanogaster: aggression-like head interactions between mutant males.
Male sexual behavior is regulated by the sex-determination hierarchy (SDH) in Drosophila melanogaster. The fruitless (fru) gene, one of the regulatory factors functioning downstream of other SDH factors, plays a prominent role in male sexual behavior. Here we demonstrate that fru mutations cause a previously unappreciated behavioral anomaly: high levels of head-to-head interactions between mutant males. These apparent confrontations between males are exhibited by all of the homozygous-viable fru mutants (expressing the effects of a given allele, among the four tested). Mutant dissatisfaction (dsf) males also exhibit this behavior at higher-than-normal levels, but it was barely displayed by doublesex or intersex mutants. For fru, a social component is involved in the head-interaction phenotype, while increasing age is a modifying factor for the behavior of dsf males. We suggest that head-to-head interactions, especially those performed by fru males, are instances of putative aggression analogous to those exhibited by wild-type males and that head interactions are, to an extent, operationally separable from courtship behavior.
Lee
G
G
Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454-9110, USA.
Hall
J C
JC
D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology*; D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear / Q000235:genetics; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*
D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear; D014157:Transcription Factors; C116600:dsf protein, Drosophila; C103226:fru protein, Drosophila