title: Juvenile Hormone Is Required in Adult Males for Drosophila Courtship.
abstract: Juvenile Hormone (JH) has a prominent role in the regulation of insect development. Much less is known about its roles in adults, although functions in reproductive maturation have been described. In adult females, JH has been shown to regulate egg maturation and mating. To examine a role for JH in male reproductive behavior we created males with reduced levels of Juvenile Hormone Acid O-Methyl Transferase (JHAMT) and tested them for courtship. JHAMT regulates the last step of JH biosynthesis in the Corpora Allata (CA), the organ of JH synthesis. Males with reduced levels of JHAMT showed a reduction in courtship that could be rescued by application of Methoprene, a JH analog, shortly before the courtship assays were performed. In agreement with this, reducing JHAMT conditionally in mature flies led to courtship defects that were rescuable by Methoprene. The same result was also observed when the CA were conditionally ablated by the expression of a cellular toxin. Our findings demonstrate that JH plays an important physiological role in the regulation of male mating behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States of America.
authors.forename: Thilini P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Wijesekera
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States of America.
authors.forename: Sumit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saurabh
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States of America.
authors.forename: Brigitte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dauwalder
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003335:Corpora Allata / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D003380:Courtship; D004330:Drosophila / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology*; D007605:Juvenile Hormones / Q000378:metabolism*; D007814:Larva / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008726:Methoprene / Q000494:pharmacology; D012098:Reproduction / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D007605:Juvenile Hormones; D008726:Methoprene