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Whitney Humphrey Dr. Barbara Taylor HHMI Summer Program.

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Presentation on theme: "Whitney Humphrey Dr. Barbara Taylor HHMI Summer Program."— Presentation transcript:

1 Whitney Humphrey Dr. Barbara Taylor HHMI Summer Program

2  Understanding of the interaction between the central nervous system and behavior.  Neurological diseases in humans  Sex Determination and Sexual Orientation in flies

3  Ideal model organisms for studying genetics  Short generation time  Many strains exists

4 Courtship Aggression

5 In females, a cascade is initiated and through splicing events produce a female-specific transcript encoding a female-specific protein: -Doublesex F (Dsx F ) In males, a cascade is initiated but different splicing events produce male-specific transcripts encoding male-specific proteins: -Fruitless M (Fru M ) -Doublesex M (Dsx M )

6 Expected behavior: -Males court females -Production of song -Copulation Unexpected behavior: -Female-male courtship interrupted -Male-male courtship observed -This event is referred to as chaining. -May or may not be song but copulation does not occur Deficiencies Fru 3, Fru 4 (P-element inserts) Fru 1 (Inversion)

7 DL Cycle: 12-hours lights on, 12-hours lights off Males: Anticipate lights on and have very little activity during the day (siesta) Females: Do not anticipate lights on and do not take a siesta.

8 How we measure activity: The DL cycle: 9:00 - 20:59 – Lights on 21:00 - 8:59 – Lights off

9 Individual Raw Data Lights onLights off n = 20

10 n = 10

11 n = 12

12  A roughly-24-hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological or behavioral processes. CS A Fru 440 x Fru sat15

13  Initially, we investigated if mutations in fruitless affected the male pattern of activity in flies.  We conclude that fruitless does not affect sex- specific activity cycles.  However, fruitless mutants show levels of decreased activity.  We also discovered that the fruitless mutants with deficiencies did not have a 24-hour period.

14  Dr. Barbara Taylor  Dr. Jaga Giebultowicz  Will Gibson  Eileen Chow  Dr. Kevin Ahern  HHMI Summer Undergraduate Research Program


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