PNAS Pan's team reveals the genetic mechanisms of gender differences between instinctive and aggressive behaviors

Are gender differences in behavior genetically determined? It may be difficult for humans or other advanced organisms to find the single gene that determines the differences between the sexes in certain behaviors, but it is possible

Doublesex (dsx) is a highly conserved sex regulatory gene that, along with the homologous Dmrt gene, encode transcription factors that contain conserved DNA-binding domains, determining sex differentiation in almost all studied species [3, 4

On September 6, 2022, Professor Pan Yufeng of the Southeast University of Science published a research paper in the journal PNAS, The doublesex gene regulates dimorphic sexual and aggressive behaviors in Drosophila, revealing how the dsx gene controls the gender differences

The study found that the two distinct sexual behaviors were controlled by hundreds of Dsx neurons expressed in the drosophile brain (most also expressed Frum^M), and Dsx^M was promoted in the male's brain to perform courtship behavior Mainly by mediating the apoptosis of some courtship neurons and thus inhibiting the production

Aiming at the differences between the sexes in aggressive behavior, that is, the aggression of males is stronger than that of females, the study found that Dsx^M and Dsx^F promoted the development of 8-10 pairs of male-specific^P1a neurons and 2 pairs of female-specific pC1d neurons, respectively, and built the neural circuit basis of sexual aggression behavior.

These findings not only reveal how a single gene regulates the sexual and aggressive sex differences in Drosophila, but also deepen the understanding of the molecular and neural circuit mechanisms of the differences in instinctive behavior; It also suggests that highly conserved DMRT proteins may regulate gender differences in animal behavior at two levels: (1) directly or indirectly regulate the development of sex-specific neural circuits during development, and construct the structural basis for differences in sexual behavior; (2) The physiological function of the neural circuits expressed is regulated in the process of behavior, and then the output strength of the corresponding behavior is regulated

The first author of the study was Han Caihong, a doctoral student at the Southeast University Of Sciences, and Dr.

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