title: Loss of Drosophila pheromone reverses its role in sexual communication in Drosophila suzukii.
abstract: The Drosophila pheromone cis-11-octadecenyl acetate (cVA) is used as pheromone throughout the melanogaster group and fulfils a primary role in sexual and social behaviours. Here, we found that Drosophila suzukii, an invasive pest that oviposits in undamaged ripe fruit, does not produce cVA. In fact, its production site, the ejaculatory bulb, is atrophied. Despite loss of cVA production, its receptor, Or67d, and cognate sensillum, T1, which are essential in cVA-mediated behaviours, were fully functional. However, T1 expression was dramatically reduced in D. suzukii, and the corresponding antennal lobe glomerulus, DA1, minute. Behavioural responses to cVA depend on the input balance of Or67d neurons (driving cVA-mediated behaviours) and Or65a neurons (inhibiting cVA-mediated behaviours). Accordingly, the shifted input balance in D. suzukii has reversed cVA's role in sexual behaviour: perfuming D. suzukii males with Drosophila melanogaster equivalents of cVA strongly reduced mating rates. cVA has thus evolved from a generic sex pheromone to a heterospecific signal that disrupts mating in D. suzukii, a saltational shift, mediated through offsetting the input balance that is highly conserved in congeneric species. This study underlines that dramatic changes in a species' sensory preference can result from rather 'simple' numerical shifts in underlying neural circuits.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Chemical Ecology, Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 23053 Alnarp, Sweden teun.dekker@slu.se.
authors.forename: Teun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dekker
authors.affiliation: Unit of Chemical Ecology, Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 23053 Alnarp, Sweden FEM, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Research and Innovation Centre, Chemical Ecology Group, Via E. Mach 1, San Michele all'Adige (TN) 38010, Italy.
authors.forename: Santosh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Revadi
authors.affiliation: Unit of Chemical Ecology, Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 23053 Alnarp, Sweden.
authors.forename: Suzan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mansourian
authors.affiliation: FEM, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Research and Innovation Centre, Chemical Ecology Group, Via E. Mach 1, San Michele all'Adige (TN) 38010, Italy.
authors.forename: Sukanya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramasamy
authors.affiliation: Unit of Chemical Ecology, Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 23053 Alnarp, Sweden.
authors.forename: Sebastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lebreton
authors.affiliation: Unit of Chemical Ecology, Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 23053 Alnarp, Sweden.
authors.forename: Paul G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Becher
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Piazza Università 5, Bolzano 39100, Italy.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Angeli
authors.affiliation: FEM, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Research and Innovation Centre, Chemical Ecology Group, Via E. Mach 1, San Michele all'Adige (TN) 38010, Italy.
authors.forename: Omar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Rota-Stabelli
authors.affiliation: FEM, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Research and Innovation Centre, Chemical Ecology Group, Via E. Mach 1, San Michele all'Adige (TN) 38010, Italy.
authors.forename: Gianfranco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Anfora
mesh_terms: D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D010675:Pheromones / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D010675:Pheromones
keywords: Drosophila suzukii; ejaculatory bulb; evolution; fruitless; pheromone; sensory drive