Postdoctoral Fellowship: PRFB: Understanding the Neural Control of Acoustic Duetting

Venuto, Alexandra C, Raleigh NC

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2024, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment, and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Animal behavior differs greatly across species, but our knowledge of how brains evolve to produce new behaviors is limited. Fruit flies offer a valuable opportunity to study how brains generate different behaviors due to their species-specific courtship songs. In many fly species, the males sing to the female and females use these songs to make mating decisions. The research project will involve a species of fruit fly where females sing back to males during courtship duets. Taking advantage of this behavioral difference between species, the fellow will investigate how the brain evolves with communication strategies. Results from this study will offer insight about the demands of rapid information exchanges between individuals. The fellow will provide research opportunities to undergraduate students and teach students about sensory biology and animal communication. The fellow will also educate students from grade school through high school via STEM education programs and lead a book club to explore topics at the interface of science and social justice. Acoustic duetting is widespread across taxa, but it is not yet understood how neural circuits control the production of such a tightly coordinated behavior. The male-specific P1 neurons in Drosophila species with male-only songs integrate external stimuli with internal mating drive to produce a complex repertoire of species-specific courtship behaviors, including song. The project involves building genetic tools in Drosophila virilis as a new model for investigating the role of P1 neurons in acoustic duetting. The fellow will learn state-of-the art techniques for probing neural function, including calcium imaging, optogenetics, and new behavioral assays to make important contributions to understanding acoustic communication. By using numerically simple and experimentally tractable Drosophila brains, the fellow will reveal how neural circuitry controlling mating behaviors evolves with the additional sensory and motor demands accompanying acoustic duetting. The research, training, and outreach initiatives that are included in this project will provide the fellow with the necessary tools and experience to continue on an academic career path committed to teaching and training students in the field of neurobiology. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.