The voyeurs' guide to Drosophila melanogaster courtship.
Drosophila melanogaster has a long and distinguished history as a model organism in studies of sex-specific behaviour. Courtship is relevant to a wide variety of areas of biological research, from investigations into the evolution of sex-specific behaviours, to studies of the molecular mechanisms underlying the perception and processing of sex-specific information, and the identification of genes that enable a fly to behave in a sex-specific fashion. To address any of these issues it is essential that courtship behaviour is investigated in a robust, reproducible and reliable manner. In this review I consider many of the problems that one might encounter in a study of Drosophila courtship, and how such issues may be addressed.
O'Dell
Kevin M.C.
KM
IBLS Division of Molecular Genetics, Anderson College Complex, University of Glasgow, 54 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow, G11 6NU, Scotland, UK