Student Co-presenter Names

Elise Wong, Tobias Jehn, Evan Bian

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Student Class

2028

First Advisor

Emily Behrman

First Advisor Department

Department of Biological Sciences

Second Advisor

Emily Carson

Second Advisor Department

Department of Biological Sciences

Description

Male Drosophila possess chemosensory receptors to detect contact pheromones which sometimes incite courtship rituals consisting of an extension and vibration of a wing, producing a species-specific courtship song whose length scales with the male’s level of attraction.1 The pheromone 7,11-heptacosadiene (7,11-HD) is a cuticular hydrocarbon pheromone expressed on female D. melanogaster (D. mel) but not on D. simulates (D. sim), causing D. mel attraction and D. sim aversion. This study aimed to quantify male’s attraction to 7,11-HD among different strains of D. mel and D. sim. To do so, virgin D. sim females, known to not produce 7,11-HD, were perfumed with controlled amounts of synthetic 7,11-HD and used to standardize visual stimuli in the promotion of courtship behaviors. Virgin D. mel and D. sim males were collected and each was paired with a single perfumed female. Courtship behaviors were recorded for 30 minutes, and SongTorrant software was used to record visual and audio data of fly tapping and wing song.3 A combination of SongExplorer software and R code utilized machine learning to identify the different components of the fly song and quantify total singing time. The singing time was quantified onto a courtship index and plotted against the concentration of pheromone on the female. The neutral to positive slopes found with D. mel males indicate stable or increased attraction while the neutral to negative slopes of D. sim males indicate absent or reduced attraction to females with higher levels of 7,11-HD.

Publication Date

5-2025

Keywords

7, 11-heptacosadiene, Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila simulates

Disciplines

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Genetics and Genomics | Research Methods in Life Sciences

The genetic basis of male Drosophila attraction to female 7,11-HD pheromone

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