title: Evening circadian oscillator as the primary determinant of rhythmic motivation for Drosophila courtship behavior.
abstract: Circadian clocks of Drosophila melanogaster motivate males to court females at a specific time of day. However, clock neurons involved in courtship rhythms in the brain of Drosophila remain totally unknown. The circadian locomotor behavior of Drosophila is controlled by morning (M cells) and evening (E cells) cells in the brain, which regulate morning and evening activities, respectively. Here, we identified the brain clock neurons that are responsible for the circadian rhythms of the close-proximity (CP) behavior that reflects male courtship motivation. Interestingly, the ablation or functional molecular clock disruption of E cells caused arrhythmic CP behavior, but that of M cells resulted in sustained CP rhythms even in constant darkness. In addition, the ablation of some dorsal lateral neurons (LNd) of E cells using neuropeptide-F (NPF)-GAL4 did not impair CP rhythms. These findings suggested that the NPF-negative LNds and DN1s of E cells include cells essential for circadian CP behavior in Drosophila.
authors.affiliation: Ishida Group of Clock Genes, Institute for Biomedical Research, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Central 6, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8566, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hamasaka
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hanai
authors.forename: Norio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ishida
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D057906:Circadian Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D003380:Courtship; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors