About the Project
Mate choice is an essential behavioural process with profound consequences in evolution. How do animals choose with whom to mate? How do they evaluate the features of a potential mate to maximise their reproductive success?
The relative simplicity of the fruit fly brain, along with the genetic tools available to identify and manipulate individual neurons and assess the effects on behaviour, provide an excellent opportunity to uncover fundamental principles underlying mating decisions [1-3]. To choose their partners, Drosophila fruit flies engage in a sophisticated courtship ritual, which involves a series of hard-wired or genetically programmed behaviours that culminate in copulation. Male flies court females displaying stereotyped behaviours that include vibrating a wing to produce a species-specific courtship song. Females never actively court males, but it is their response to the male’s display which ultimately determines whether mating will occur. It is believed that females evaluate a potential mate for species type and fitness before deciding whether to copulate or not. We do not yet know how courtship-related information is integrated in the female brain to either reject or accept the male, nor how mating decisions are in fact executed.
This project aims to identify neurons and neuropeptides involved in female sexual receptivity and acceptance behaviours in Drosophila, and thus contribute to the understanding of the neural processes that are responsible for the decision to copulate. By taking advantage of a wide range of cutting edge techniques, including genetics, in vivo confocal microscopy, functional imaging, optogenetics and behavioural assays, we will study mate selection in detail: from behaviour to circuits,
to neurons and genes. As a result, we hope to gain insight into how external sensory signals are integrated and processed in the brain to guide reproductive choices.
Discoveries in fruit flies have greatly contributed to neuroscience. This research project offers a unique opportunity to study how the brain makes decisions that are essential for reproductive success, and uncover neural mechanisms that might be present across species.
Techniques that will be undertaken during the project:
This research will take advantage of the sophisticated genetic tools available in Drosophila to track neural circuits and test their involvement in mate selection. The PhD student will use a range of cutting-edge techniques, including:
Genetics
In vivo confocal microscopy
Optogenetics
Molecular biology
Functional imaging
High resolution behavioural assays
Contact: Dr Carolina Rezaval for more information about the project and application process: [Email Address Removed]
Check out our lab website: www.rezavallab.org
twitter: @crezaval
Details of Carolina’s post-doctoral research at Oxford University can be found here :https://www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/team/carolina-rezaval
Watch a 3 minute video about Carolina’s past work here: https://vimeo.com/177551510.
Funding Notes
We encourage applications at any time from students able to find their own funding or who wish to apply for their own funding.
The School of Biosciences offers a number of UK Research Council PhD studentships each year which are available to UK and EU nationals. Each year we also have a number of fully funded Darwin Trust Scholarships for non-UK students wishing to undertake a PhD in the general area of Molecular Microbiology. The deadlines for applications is 31 January each year.
All applicants should indicate in their applications how they intend to fund their studies.
References
Rezaval, C., Nojima, T., Neville, M.C., Lin, A.C., and Goodwin, S.F. (2014). Sexually dimorphic octopaminergic neurons modulate female postmating behaviours in Drosophila. Curr Biol 24, 725-730.
Rezaval, C., Pavlou, H.J., Dornan, A.J., Chan, Y.B., Kravitz, E.A., and Goodwin, S.F. (2012). Neural circuitry underlying Drosophila female postmating behavioral responses. Curr Biol 22, 1155-1165.
Pavlou, H.J., and Goodwin, S.F. (2013). Courtship behavior in Drosophila melanogaster: towards a 'courtship connectome'. Curr Opin Neurobiol 23, 76-83.
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