Male courtship in Drosophila: the conditioned response to immature males and its genetic control

Experimentally naive male Drosophila melanogaster respond to sexually immature males with intense courtship. However, this response decreases markedly in a short period of time, and "experienced" males then avoid further courtship with immature males for 4 hr. This subsequent inhibition of the courtship response is specific to immature males; the response to virgin females remains intact. This experience-dependent modification in courtship behavior is designated as "conditioned courtship." Seven mutant strains isolated for their inability to express avoidance conditioning (on criteria independent of courtship) were all found to be mutant with respect to expression of conditioned courtship. The potential application of this phenomenon to mosaic analysis of these mutations is posed. Other results indicate that immature males constitutively release a chemical signal that is sufficient for the expression of conditioned courtship. The interpretation of conditioned courtship as a component of fitness is discussed.