Abstract
Over the last half century, the courtship behavior of male Drosophila melanogaster has served as a model for the study of a diverse range of biology processes. In more recent years, a stronger understanding of the sensory cues underlying initiation of courtship has emerged. Much less is known, however, regarding the function of the two components of the male's courtship song and their dependence on female behavior. Here, I show that the courting male dynamically adjusts the relative proportions the two songs as a function of female locomotion; this phenomenon is termed "courtship strategy." Males deficient for olfactory processing as well as males with poor visual acuity have non-wild-type courtship strategies. The specific manifestations of these differences are dependent upon the deprived sensory modalities. Results suggest a mechanism of song production in which the wing is invigorated by two CNS signals. One yields sine and pulse stochastically in nearly equal proportions and the other yields only pulse. The activity of these two signals are modeled as functions of sensory input in a way that recreates the courtship strategy observed for both wild-type and mutant flies. The proposed circuit by which courtship strategy arises offers potential insight into the mechanisms by which behavior is dynamically adjusted in response to changing sensory cues. Furthermore, courtship strategy offers a tractable model for the study of higher-order sensory integration in a relatively simple organism.