Researchers from the Oxford University, UK, and from the Yale University, US, have managed to gain control over the brain of female flies and they made the female fruit flies to act like males. They activated the brain cells that control the sexual behavior with a light-pulse.
This activation made the females to sing a courtship song which is specific for males. The leaders of the project were Gero Misenboeck from O.U. and J. Dylan Clyne from Y.U, and they based their research on the fact that males are having a pretty hard job when trying to mate with a female, but if the female-fly likes the song then we have a match.
According to a previous research, about two thousand brain cells are need for courtship and the researchers noticed that the males and the females have almost the same neuronal equipment but they act differently therefore Prof. Miesenboeck and Prof. Clyne decided to see what was the difference.
The team of researchers comfortably put some flies in a tiny sound studio and they genetically modified them in order to respond to the light pulses. After they turned on the neurons from a female they noticed that one of the female fruit fly started to lift and vibrate the wings in the same way like the males and they produced a song.
Now that the researchers have the proof that the female and male brain circuits are almost the same, they will try to find out what makes them to act so different under normal circumstances.
