Hormonal control of motivational circuitry orchestrates the transition to sexuality in Drosophila

Abstract

Newborns and hatchlings can perform incredibly sophisticated behaviors, but many animals abstain from sexual activity at the beginning of life. Hormonal changes have long been known to drive both physical and behavioral changes during adolescence, leading to the largely untested assumption that sexuality emerges from organizational changes to neuronal circuitry. We show that the transition to sexuality in male Drosophila is controlled by hormonal changes, but this regulation is functional rather than structural. In very young males, a broadly acting hormone directly inhibits the activity of three courtship-motivating circuit elements, ensuring the complete suppression of sexual motivation and behavior. Blocking or overriding these inhibitory mechanisms evokes immediate and robust sexual behavior from very young and otherwise asexual males. Similarities to mammalian adolescence suggest a general principle in which hormonal changes gate the transition to sexuality not by constructing new circuitry but by permitting activity in otherwise latent motivational circuit elements.