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Prospero Mutants Induce Precocious Sexual Behavior in Drosophila Males

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Abstract

Brain maturation, a developmental process influenced by both endogenous and environmental factors, can affect sexual behavior. In vertebrates and invertebrates, sexual maturation is under the influence of hormones and neuromodulators, but the role of developmental genes in this process is still poorly understood. We report that prospero (pros), a gene crucial for nervous system development, can change the age of onset of sexual behavior in Drosophila melanogaster males: adult males carrying a single copy of several pros mutations court females and mate at a younger age than control males. However, these pros mutations had no effect on female sexual receptivity and did not alter other male phenotypes related to mating behavior. The Pros protein was detected in several brain and sensory structures of immature adult males, some of which are normally involved in the regulation of male specific behaviors. Our data suggest that the altered pros expression affects the age of onset of male mating behavior.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Matthew Cobb for rewriting the ms, to Laurence Dartevelle for help with the CG analysis, Chris Doe for the gift of the MR1A anti-Pros antibody, and Claude Everaerts for help with the statistics and figures. This work was partially funded by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and by the Conseil Régional de Bourgogne (JFF), and by a grant from the French ministry of Research and Education (YG).

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  1. Unité Mixte de Recherche 5548 Associée au Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Bourgogne, 6, Bd Gabriel, Dijon, 21 000, France

    Yaël Grosjean, Laure Guenin, Henri-Marc Bardet & Jean-François Ferveur

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  1. Yaël Grosjean
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  2. Laure Guenin
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  3. Henri-Marc Bardet
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  4. Jean-François Ferveur
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Correspondence to Jean-François Ferveur.

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Edited by Yong-Kyn Kim

Yaël Grosjean and Laure Guenin contributed equally to this work

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Grosjean, Y., Guenin, L., Bardet, HM. et al. Prospero Mutants Induce Precocious Sexual Behavior in Drosophila Males. Behav Genet 37, 575–584 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-007-9152-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-007-9152-5

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