Ryba Anna, Brand Philipp, Coleman Rory T, Greenfeld Yarden, Tsitohay Yael N, Hollunder Florian, Keller Katharine, Hathiyari Murtaza, Wei Tianyi, Barbano Paolo Emilio, Ruta Vanessa
Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Behavior and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University; New York, NY, USA.
Current address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
bioRxiv. 2025 Aug 22:2025.08.15.670615. doi: 10.1101/2025.08.15.670615.
Sexual selection acts on heritable differences within species, driving the parallel diversification of signal production in one sex and behavioral responses in the other. This coevolution implies that sensory preferences are themselves variable traits, yet the neural basis of such variation remains unclear. Here, we identify striking strain-specific differences in male mate preferences that arise from differential sensitivity to heterospecific female pheromones. We map this variation to an ascending inhibitory pathway targeting a central circuit node known to dynamically pattern courtship. Inhibitory circuits thus emerge as a key locus for shaping mate discrimination via transient suppression of a male's pursuit. Our findings highlight how variation within sensory circuitry serves as a substrate for selection, fueling the evolution of reproductive barriers between species.
性选择作用于物种内部的遗传差异，推动一种性别的信号产生与另一种性别的行为反应平行多样化。这种共同进化意味着感官偏好本身就是可变性状，但其变异的神经基础仍不清楚。在这里，我们发现雄性配偶偏好存在显著的品系特异性差异，这种差异源于对异种雌性信息素的不同敏感性。我们将这种变异映射到一条上升抑制通路，该通路靶向一个已知能动态调控求偶行为的中枢回路节点。因此，抑制性回路成为通过短暂抑制雄性的追求来塑造配偶识别的关键位点。我们的研究结果突出了感觉回路内的变异如何作为选择的基础，推动物种间生殖隔离的进化。
