Figure 2. Elimination of Fru^M in three OA SOG neurons increases male-male courtship.

Confocal sections of a transgenic dTdc2-Gal4/UAS-mCD8:GFP adult male brain labeled with anti-GFP (green), mAb nc82 (labels neuropil regions, blue), and anti-Fru^M antiserum (red), (n = 22). The SOG region contains neurons that co-express OA and Fru^M as highlighted by the white box. This region is the focus of the images found in B–E. scale bar  = 0.3 cm (B) Two ventral paired median neurons (OA-VPM, arrows) express Fru^M in this male dTdc2-Gal4/UAS-mCD8:GFP adult brain. (C) Fru^M expression is eliminated in the VPM neurons (arrows) in dTdc2-Gal4/UAS-fru^M IR/UAS-mCD8:GFP males. (D) A single OA-VUM (OA-ventral unpaired median neuron) neuron also expresses Fru^M (arrow). (E) Elimination of Fru^M OA-VUM expression (arrow) in a male dTdc2-Gal4/UAS-fru^M IR/UAS-mCD8:GFP adult brain. (n = 10 per genotype) (F) The box plot depicts the percentage of total time spent performing wing extensions to females (red) and males (blue). The first section is data from two control UAS- fru^M IR/+ males. The second part corresponds to the courtship by a dTdc2-Gal4/UAS- fru^M IR male paired with a control UAS- fru^M IR/+male. The third plot represents data from pairings with two dTdc2-Gal4/UAS- fru^M IR males. The fourth group is data from two Tβh^nM18 dTdc2-Gal4/UAS- fru^M IR males. The asterisks represent medians that are statistically different according to Wilcoxon rank sum for nonparametric data: UAS- fru^M IR/+− dTdc2-Gal4/UAS- fru^M IR (second section, P<.004), UAS- fru^M IR/+− dTdc2-Gal4/UAS- fru^M IR (third section, P<.009), UAS- fru^M IR/+− Tβh^nM18 dTdc2-Gal4/UAS- fru^M IR (P<.0015) (n =  at least 10 for each genotype) (G) Box plot of the wing extension duration (in seconds) displayed by one male to a second fly (females indicated in red, males indicated in blue). The duration of the male-male wing extension by UAS- fru^M IR/+control males is significantly shorter than male-female wing extensions performed by the same males (Student's t test, P<.0001) and male-male wing extensions performed by dTdc2-Gal4/UAS- fru^M IR males paired with controls or two dTdc2-Gal4/UAS- fru^M IR males paired or Tβh^nM18 dTdc2-Gal4/UAS- fru^M IR males (asterisks: ANOVA for independent groups, P<.0002). The wing extension duration data were collected from the competitive courtship assays described in (F).