Drosophila melanogaster courtship song may be key to controlling mosquitoes

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How fruit flies mate may be key to limiting the spread of disease by mosquitoes.
In a new study, researchers at the University of Iowa have discovered a gene that regulates antennae movement in female fruit flies. This gene plays an important role in allowing fruit flies to detect the unique sounds made by male potential mates. The Iowa researchers say the gene is present in mosquitoes and can be suppressed, which would theoretically reduce mating opportunities and limit mosquito population growth. .
Mosquitoes are well-known carriers of many diseases that affect human health. In the United States, these diseases include West Nile virus, Eastern equine encephalitis, and Zika. Female mosquitoes can spread these diseases to animals and humans when they bite, drawing blood contaminated with pathogens and infecting others with subsequent bites.
“Mosquitoes actually have a kind of active regulatory system that’s very similar to fruit flies, and it’s a very large number of “This could have an impact on stopping the spread of the disease.” “Therefore, understanding how fruit flies and mosquitoes not only mate, but also hear, could be an important consideration for human health.”
The researchers used a small microphone to pick up the sound of a type of fruit fly flapping its wings. A female fruit fly’s antennae pick up vibrations, or pulses, transmitted through the air by the beat of its wings, signaling the presence of a male mate. The antennae of female fruit flies can be thought of as sensory organs that “hear” vibrations, similar to the human ear.
What’s interesting is that not all courtship songs are the same.
“I think the important thing for us is that the songs they sing are slightly different among closely related species,” Eberle says. “The interval between pulses varies from species to species, and that’s why it’s important because they want to mate with members of the same species. So this song helps give them the perception that they’re the same species.” Masu.”
Biologists know that female flies tune their antennae to the same frequency range of sounds emitted by males of the same species. What they didn’t know was how exactly that tweak was made, and specifically where.
Researchers at Iowa State investigated the hearing of Drosophila melanogaster, a well-known and long-studied fruit fly species. In particular, they studied Johnston’s organ in the fly’s antennae and where sound is detected. They discovered and studied a pathway in Johnston’s organ called a potassium ion channel that activates neurons involved in hearing in flies. Further investigation revealed that a gene called Schar is a type of gatekeeper for ion channels, determining when external sounds and movements are converted into electrical signals and transmitted between neurons. The sequence of events governed by the Schar gene seemed essential to the fly.
The researchers then canceled the shall gene to confirm its role in antennal tuning and thus hearing in female flies.
“Without the Schar gene, it loses its ability to regulate,” says Eli Gregory, an undergraduate human physiology student from Cedar Rapids who conducted the experiment to counteract the gene. “The female loses the ability to tune her antennae to that frequency, which reduces the mating response from that female.”
Mosquitoes also employ similar methods in their courtship rituals.
That means “we could knock out that gene or that potassium channel so that mosquitoes can’t mate as effectively as they used to. That could reduce mosquito numbers, and therefore human health.” “There will be fewer problems,” Eberle said.
The study, “The voltage-gated potassium channel Shal (Kv4) contributes to active hearing in Drosophila,” was published online Dec. 17 in eNeuro, the open-access journal of the Society for Neuroscience.
Further information: Eli S. Gregory et al, Voltage-gated potassium channel Shal(Kv4) Contributes to Active Hearing in Drosophila, eneuro (2024). DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0083-24.2024
Provided by University of Iowa
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