Laboratory of Comparative Behavioral Genetics, Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Laboratory of Toxinology and Molecular Systematics, L.A. Orbeli Institute of Physiology, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia.
PLoS One. 2023 Aug 10;18(8):e0290048. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290048. eCollection 2023.
Drosophila melanogaster is a popular model organism in the study of memory due to a wide arsenal of methods used to analyze neuronal activity. The most commonly used tests in research of behavioral plasticity are shock avoidance associated with chemosensory cues and courtship suppression after mating failure. Many authors emphasize the value of courtship suppression as a model of behavior most appropriate to natural conditions. However, researchers often investigate courtship suppression using immobilized and decapitated females as targets of courtship by males, which makes the data obtained from such flies less valuable. In our study, we evaluate courtship suppression towards immature mobile non-receptive females after training with mated or immature females combined with an aversive stimulus (quinine). We have shown that the previously described mechanisms of courtship suppression, as a result of the association of the courtship object with the repellent, as well as due to increased sensitivity to the anti-aphrodisiac cVA after mating failure, are not confirmed when immature mobile females are used. We discuss the reasons for the discrepancies between our results and literature data, define the conditions to be met in the courtship suppression test if the aim is to analyze the natural forms of behavioral plasticity, and present data on the test modifications to approximate conditions to natural ones.
黑腹果蝇是研究记忆的一种常用模式生物，因为它有广泛的方法可用于分析神经元活动。在行为可塑性研究中最常使用的测试是与化学感觉线索相关的回避电击测试和交配失败后的求偶抑制。许多作者强调求偶抑制作为最接近自然条件的行为模型的价值。然而，研究人员通常使用固定和断头的雌性作为雄性求偶的目标来研究求偶抑制，这使得从这种苍蝇中获得的数据价值降低。在我们的研究中，我们评估了经过交配或不成熟的雌性与厌恶刺激（奎宁）联合训练后，对不成熟的、可移动的、不可接受的雌性的求偶抑制。我们已经表明，当使用不成熟的、可移动的雌性时，以前描述的求偶抑制机制，即由于求偶对象与驱虫剂的关联，以及由于交配失败后对抗引诱剂 cVA 的敏感性增加，并不成立。我们讨论了我们的结果与文献数据之间的差异的原因，定义了在求偶抑制测试中如果目的是分析自然形式的行为可塑性，则需要满足的条件，并提供了测试修改的数据，以接近自然条件。
