title: Insect pheromone behavior: fruit fly.
abstract: The amenability to genetics of Drosophila melanogaster has made this organism one of the best-suited models for studying the neurobiology of pheromone-guided behavior. Single-male assays use the minigene encoding the thermosensitive channel dTrpA1 to activate neurons expressing fruitless (fru), a major courtship regulator gene, and thereby induce most of the elementary courtship acts in a solitary male exposed to temperature increase. Tethered male assays allow Ca(2+)-imaging of neuronal activities of a male fly displaying courtship behavior on a treadmill when stimulated with a female or pheromones. Here we describe technical details of these assays.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Biology and Neurosciences, Tohoku University Graduate School of Life Sciences, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Soh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kohatsu
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koganezawa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003380:Courtship; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007473:Ion Channels; D008297:Male; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D010675:Pheromones / Q000378:metabolism*; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D000074025:TRPA1 Cation Channel; D050052:TRPC Cation Channels / Q000235:genetics; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C557617:GAL4 protein, Drosophila; D007473:Ion Channels; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D010675:Pheromones; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D000074025:TRPA1 Cation Channel; D050052:TRPC Cation Channels; D014157:Transcription Factors; C475684:TrpA1 protein, Drosophila; C103226:fru protein, Drosophila