Fruitless (fru) and the Neural System of Rejection Behaviours in Female Drosophila melanogaster
Abstract
Among sexually reproducing organisms, species are separated by their inability to reproduce with each other and form viable, fertile offspring. One type of reproductive barrier is behavioural, whereby mating is not initiated between two species. In the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, a gene called fruitless regulates heterospecific courtship and rejection behaviours, however, its neural mechanisms of action remain unknown in females. In this work, I identified which fruitless splice variants are expressed in adult males and females, and created the plasmid vectors necessary to implement a genetic system for the purposes of identifying, silencing, and hyperactivating neuronal subsets that express distinct splice-variants of fruitless. These plasmid vectors can be used in the future to induce expression of exogenous genes of interest for further experimentation in D. melanogaster.