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The role of P1 neurons in D. virilis song production and perception. Acoustic duetting is behavior exhibited by only a handful of fly species, including Drosophila virilis, wherein males and females communicate in a coordinated courtship ritual with precisely timed acoustic signals. As a postdoc with Christa Baker, I am investigating how P1 neurons, which are central to D. melanogaster courtship and song production, evolve with the acoustic duetting behavior in D. virilis. Both D. melanogaster and D. virilis males sing using unilateral wing vibration when courting a female. However, there are key differences in the songs of the two species. D. melanogaster males rapidly alternate between pulse and sine song depending on moment-to-moment sensory feedback from the female (Coen et al., 2014), whereas D. virilis males produce a highly stereotyped female-directed pulse song (LaRue et al., 2015). D. virilis males face the additional challenge of rapidly recognizing sounds and coordinating song production with their partner (LaRue et al., 2015). I aim to understand the role of P1 neurons in D. virilis acoustic duetting by building new genetic tools enabling cell-type-specific activation and in vivo recordings. This work is funded by NSF (PRFB #2410148).
The role of P1 neurons in post-copulatory changes in courtship activity. The culmination of female-directed courtship is copulation, after which D. melanogaster males exhibit a significant decrease in courtship behaviors (Pan et al., 2012). P1 activation after copulation restores courtship levels to that of virgin males (Pan et al., 2012), suggesting that a decrease in P1 activity contributes to post-copulatory courtship reduction. Mating drive decreases with each copulation event, which is likely due to a reduction of dopamine in D. melanogaster (Zhang et al., 2016). The drop in dopamine levels is transmitted to P1 neurons, although the level of P1 activity following copulation remains untested. From video and audio recordings, I have found differences in postcopulatory male behavior across species, and am investigating the role of P1 neurons. This work is funded by NSF (PRFB #2410148).
Understanding how congenital loss of the mechanosensory lateral line affects larval zebrafish behaviors
The role of the lateral line in initial swim bladder inflation in larval zebrafish. Larval zebrafish achieve neutral buoyancy by swimming up to the surface and taking in air through their mouths to inflate their swim bladders in a behavior we define as 'surfacing' (Lindsey et al., 2010). Little is known about the sensory basis for this underappreciated behavior of larval fish. My doctoral work with Timothy Erickson involved establishing and characterizing the first genetic mutant in zebrafish that rendered lateral line hair cells non-functional from birth, without affecting inner ear hair cell function. The novel lateral line mutant displayed an unexpected phenotype wherein approximately half of larvae exhibited swim bladder hyperinflation. Upon further investigation, we made the novel discovery that larval zebrafish use their lateral line to sense the air-water interface and help regulate initial swim bladder inflation during the multisensory surfacing behavior (Venuto et al., 2023).
The effect of a nonfunctional lateral line on expression of the social hormone parathyroid hormone 2. Parathyroid hormone 2 (pth2) is a neuropeptide that is highly expressed in individuals raised in social contact with conspecifics (Anneser et al., 2020). A previous study demonstrated that larval zebrafish with chemically ablated lateral line hair cells exhibit a significant decrease in pth2 expression compared to intact counterparts, implicating the mechanosensory lateral line as a primary sensory activator for pth2 expression (Anneser et al., 2022). However, it remained unclear how a congenital loss of lateral line function may influence the ability of zebrafish to interpret their social environment. We used in-situ hybridization techniques in addition to creating a fluorescent reporter driven by the pth2 regulatory region to evaluate pth2 expression in lateral line mutants and wild type siblings. We found that congenital loss of lateral line function indeed leads to chronically depressed levels of pth2 expression in group-reared zebrafish, but isolating mutants further reduces pth2 expression, thereby indicating that pth2 likely responds to multisensory input during social experience (Venuto et al., 2022).
Teaching module: Understanding how fruit flies respond to different magnetic fields
The effect of different magnetic field intensities on fruit fly courtship. As lectured for a module in the Physics and the Brain course at NC State, I provide a hands-on opportunity to teach students about experimental design, behavior analysis, and the exciting sixth sense of magnetoreception! Some animals, like sea turtles and migratory birds, posess the ability to sense the Earth's magnetic field to help with navigation. Some studies report that fruit flies are capable of recognizing changes in the magnetic field, and we put this to the test! A male and female fly pairing is randomly subjected to one of two different chambers; one with a strong magnetic field intensity of 20 Gauss and one with a weak magnetic field intensity of 1 Gauss. Students are then assigned videos (initially blinded to magnetic field intensity) to evaluate the amount of courtship both manually and using the tracked data from the machine learning software, SLEAP. After compiling data, students analyze whether fly courtship was impacted by magnetic field intensity, and assess the benefits and disadvantages of using artificial intelligence in data collection. We are currently working on expanding this module by making the set-up portable and allowing students to design their own experiments. We then plan on writing a pedagogical manuscript about this module to allow other classrooms to adapt this low cost, interactive magnetoreception experiment.
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