A sex-specific switch between visual and olfactory inputs underlies adaptive sex differences in behavior
While males and females largely share the same genome and nervous system, they differ profoundly in reproductive investments and require distinct behavioral, morphological and physiological adaptations. How can the nervous system, while bound by both developmental and biophysical constraints, produc...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2021
|
| Summary: | While males and females largely share the same genome and nervous system, they
differ profoundly in reproductive investments and require distinct behavioral,
morphological and physiological adaptations. How can the nervous system, while
bound by both developmental and biophysical constraints, produce these sexdifferences in behavior? Here we uncover a novel dimorphism in Drosophila
melanogaster that allows deployment of completely different behavioral repertoires in
males and females with minimum changes to circuit architecture. Sexual differentiation
of only a small number of higher-order neurons in the brain leads to a change in
connectivity related to the primary reproductive needs of both sexes - courtship pursuit
in males and communal oviposition in females. This study explains how an apparently
similar brain generates distinct behavioral repertoires in the two sexes and presents a
fundamental principle of neural circuit organization that may be extended to other
species. |
|---|