Egg-laying demand induces aversion of UV light in Drosophila females.

Edward Y Zhu, Ananya R Guntur, Ruo He, Ulrich Stern, Chung-Hui Yang

Current biology : CB 2014 Dec 1

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Drosophila melanogaster females are highly selective about the chemosensory quality of their egg-laying sites, an important trait that promotes the survival and fitness of their offspring. How egg-laying females respond to UV light is not known, however. UV is a well-documented phototactic cue for adult Drosophila, but it is an aversive cue for larvae. Here, we show that female flies exhibit UV aversion in response to their egg-laying demand. First, females exhibit egg-laying aversion of UV: they prefer to lay eggs on dark sites when choosing between UV-illuminated and dark sites. Second, they also exhibit movement aversion of UV: positional tracking of single females suggests that egg-laying demand increases their tendency to turn away from UV. Genetic manipulations of the retina suggest that egg-laying and movement aversion of UV are both mediated by the inner (R7) and not the outer (R1-R6) photoreceptors. Finally, we show that the Dm8 amacrine neurons, a synaptic target of R7 photoreceptors and a mediator of UV spectral preference, are dispensable for egg-laying aversion but essential for movement aversion of UV. This study suggests that egg-laying demand can temporarily convert UV into an aversive cue for female Drosophila and that R7 photoreceptors recruit different downstream targets to control different egg-laying-induced behavioral modifications. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Edward Y Zhu, Ananya R Guntur, Ruo He, Ulrich Stern, Chung-Hui Yang. Egg-laying demand induces aversion of UV light in Drosophila females. Current biology : CB. 2014 Dec 1;24(23):2797-804