Baoxu Ma1,2 · Rencong Wang1,2 · Yaohua Liu3 · Bowen Deng4 · Tao Wang1 · Fengming Wu1,2 · Chuan Zhou1,2,51 State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
3 Department of Plant Protection, Shanxi Agricultural University, Jinzhong 30801, China
4 Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Zhongguancun Life Sciences Park, Beijing 102206, China 5 Institute of Molecular Physiology, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518132, China
Abstract
The choice of females to accept or reject male courtship is a critical decision for animal reproduction. Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) has been found to regulate sexual behavior in many species, but it is unclear how 5-HT and its receptors function to regulate different aspects of sexual behavior. Here we used Drosophila melanogaster as the model animal to investigate how 5-HT and its receptors modulate female sexual receptivity. We found that knockout of tryptophan hydroxylase (Trh), which is involved in the biosynthesis of 5-HT, severely reduced virgin female receptivity without affecting post-mating behaviors. We identified a subset of sexually dimorphic Trh neurons that co-expressed fruitless (fru), in which the activity was correlated with sexual receptivity in females. We also found that 5-HT1A and 5-HT7 receptors regulate virgin female receptivity. Our findings demonstrate how 5-HT functions in sexually dimorphic neurons to promote virgin female receptivity through two of its receptors.
Keywords
Female sexual receptivity; Serotonin; 5-HT; Fruitless; Neurochemical; 5-HT receptors; Drosophila
