Understanding neuronal mechanisms underlying female preference and sexual selection in cricket

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26650115
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Animal physiology/Animal behavior
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Aonuma Hitoshi 北海道大学, 電子科学研究所, 准教授 (20333643)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): WATANABA TAKAYUKI 北海道大学, 電子科学研究所, 学術研究員 (70547851)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 昆虫 / 適応行動 / 遺伝子導入 / 配偶行動 / 神経修飾 / 生体アミン / in vivo RMCE法 / piggyBack transposon

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this project is understanding the neuronal mechanisms underlying adaptive behavior, and we focused on mating behavior that is one of the common behaviors of animals. In crickets, males sound calling song and courtship song to attract a female. The female can decide to mate or not to mate with the male sounding. In order to understand the neuronal mechanism of mating selection, we have investigated the roles of biogenic amines, in particular dopamine (DA). Behavioral and pharmacological experiments demonstrated that metabolism of DA in the brain increased when female respond to the calling song. We then asked which neurons release or receive DA in the brain? In order to identify these neurons, we challenged to develop novel method to create transgenic crickets (in vivo RMCE). As a first step, we succeeded in creating transgenic crickets carring attP sequence. Using them, we have challenged to create transgenic crickets using phiC31 integrase.

Free Research Field

動物生理・行動