Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
2044775 Current Biology 2006 11 Pages PDF
Abstract

Understanding how genes influence behavior, including sexuality, is one of biology's greatest challenges. Much of the recent progress in understanding how single genes can influence behavior has come from the study of innate behaviors 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 behavior — which is largely innate in flies — is built into the nervous system during development, and how this circuitry functions in the adult. In this review we will discuss how genes of the sex determination pathway in Drosophila orchestrate the developmental events necessary for sex-specific behaviors and physiology, and the broader lessons this can teach us about the mechanisms underlying the development of sex-specific neural circuitry.

Related Topics
Life Sciences Agricultural and Biological Sciences Agricultural and Biological Sciences (General)
Authors
, , , ,