Social experience and pheromone receptor activity reprogram behavioral switch gene splicing and neuromodulatory gene expression in sensory neurons
Authors: Bryson Deanhardt 1, 3; Qichen Duan 2; Chengcheng Du 2; Charles Soeder 3; Corbin Jones 3; Pelin Volkan 1, 2
Affiliations: 1) Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham; 2) Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham; 3) Department of Biology, University of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill
Keywords: z. other (Transcriptional regulation); g. courtship and mating
Social experience and pheromone signaling in pheromone sensing olfactory neurons affect pheromone responses and male courtship behaviors in Drosophila. We previously showed that social experience and pheromone signaling modulates chromatin around behavioral switch gene fruitless, which encodes a transcription factor necessary and sufficient for male courtship behaviors. Fruitless drives social context dependent modulation of courtship behaviors and pheromone responses in sensory neurons, however, the molecular mechanisms underlying this circuit-level neuromodulation remain less clear. To identify the molecular mechanisms driving social experience-dependent neuromodulation, we performed RNA-seq from antennal samples of mutants in pheromone receptors and fruitless, as well as grouped or socially isolated wild-type males. We found that loss of pheromone detection differentially altered the usage levels of fruitless exons, suggesting changes in splicing patterns. In addition, many Fruitless target neuromodulatory genes, such as neurotransmitter receptors, ion channels, and ion transporters, were differentially regulated by social context and pheromone signaling. Recent studies showed that social experience and juvenile hormone signaling coregulated fru chromatin to modify pheromone responses in olfactory neurons. Interestingly, genes involved in juvenile hormone metabolism were also misregulated in different social contexts and mutant backgrounds.Our results suggest that modulation of circuit activity and behaviors in response to social experience and pheromone signaling arise due to large-scale changes in transcriptional programs for neuromodulators downstream of behavioral switch gene function.