Dissecting the neural networks underlying female sexual behavior

任何生物体复杂行为背后的普遍遗传、发育和神经机制是什么？要理解这一点，需要一个在基因和行为上都很容易处理的模式系统。在了解基因如何影响行为方面，最近的许多进展都来自对果蝇黑腹果蝇先天行为的研究。特别是，雄蝇进行的精心设计的求偶仪式让人们对性行为背后的神经回路--这在很大程度上是苍蝇与生俱来的--是如何在发育过程中内置到神经系统中，以及这种回路在成年果蝇中是如何发挥作用的，提供了非凡的见解。虽然男性的求爱行为被描述得非常详细，但女性的作用在很大程度上被忽视了，因此人们对调节女性性行为的特定神经元底物知之甚少。在求爱过程中，雌性在表面上看起来很被动，但在选择配偶方面表现出微妙的行为。我们感兴趣的是找到女性大脑中的神经回路，它必须整合她的感官，并在接受或拒绝男性的替代行动之间做出决定。我们正在果蝇身上使用分子遗传学和行为学方法来了解雌性果蝇是如何做出配偶选择的。我们研究的分子通路是高度保守的，理解简单行为选择背后的神经元事件，可能会为高等动物的决策提供新的见解。除了这些好处外，了解行为选择还具有潜在的商业和医学意义，特别是对于开发控制各种农业害虫和人类病媒的生殖或寻找寄主行为的新方法。

What are the universal genetic, developmental, and neural mechanisms that underlie complex behaviours in any organism? Understanding this requires a model system that is both genetically and behaviourally tractable. Much of the recent progress in understanding how genes can influence behaviour has come from the study of innate behaviours in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. In particular, the elaborate courtship ritual performed by the male fly has provided remarkable insights into how the neural circuitry underlying sexual behaviour - which is largely innate in flies - is built into the nervous system during development, and how this circuitry functions in the adult. While male courtship behaviour has been characterized in great detail, the female role has been largely ignored, thus little is known about the specific neuronal substrates mediating female sexual behaviour. During courtship, females appear superficially passive but exhibit subtle behaviours associated with mate choice. We are interested in finding the neural circuits in the female brain that must integrate her senses, and decide between the alternative actions of acceptance or rejection of the male. We are using molecular-genetic and behavioural approaches in the fruit fly to understand how the female makes her mate choice. The molecular pathways we investigate are highly conserved, and understanding the neuronal events underlying simple behavioural choices, may provide new insights in decision-making in higher animals. In addition to these benefits, understanding behavioural choices has potential commercial and medical relevance, particularly for the development of new approaches for controlling the reproductive or host-seeking behaviours of various agricultural pests and human disease vectors.