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17 August 2025

Love and a Regurgitated Gift

In the world of fruit flies, romance can take surprising forms. The species Drosophila subobscura has a peculiar courtship ritual: before mating, a male must win over the female by giving her a gift. But instead of flowers or chocolates, he offers her a tiny mouth-to-mouth meal of regurgitated food. Interestingly, their close cousin Drosophila melanogaster—the fruit fly most often used in laboratories—doesn’t do this at all.

So what makes one species a generous suitor while the other skips the gift exchange? Japanese researchers discovered that the difference comes down to a single gene, called FruitlessM (FruM), which helps wire male brains for courtship behavior. In D. subobscura, this gene switches on in a group of brain cells that regulate feeding. When FruM is missing, the cells don’t grow the connections they need, and the males fail to present their nuptial gift.

Even more intriguing, when scientists turned on FruM in the same brain cells of D. melanogaster, something remarkable happened: the cells sprouted new connections, and the males began regurgitating food more often—hinting at a hidden potential for gift-giving buried in their biology.

This research shows how a small genetic change can spark big differences in behavior between species. What looks like a simple act of food sharing is, in fact, the product of evolutionary history written deep in the wiring of the brain.

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1 comment:

  1. So, both flies full fill the same environmental locker? Seems this behavior don't give a clear evolutionary advantage for neither of this species.

    ReplyDelete

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