Sex changes the biological clock of female fruit flies, through a "sex peptide" which is transferred from the male during mating (IMAGE)

PLOS

Sex changes the biological clock of female fruit flies, through a "sex peptide" which is transferred from the male during mating

Caption

Mating changes the onset of daily activity, masking a central function of the clock. This modulation is mediated by the sex peptide (transferred during copulation) acting on ppk+ neurons, which, in turn, directly contact pdf+ neurons, responsible for the increase of the activity that precedes dawn. Thus, our work identifies a post-mating response directly related to the circadian clock and begins to unravel the underlying neuronal circuit.

Credit

Riva et al., 2022, PLOS Genetics, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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Credit must be given to the creator.

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CC BY

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