SAN2020

In Drosophila, the most studied circadian behavior is locomotor activity, which is very well described in males. In the last years it has been reported that once mated, females present differences in their diurnal activity compared to males, in particular they lose their rest period during daylight hours. The decreased daytime sleep observed could be due to an interference with the circadian system, or on the contrary, it could be a homeostatic response associated to an increased egg-laying activity. To explore the hypothesis that the signaling generated by mating could alter the normal function of the circadian clock and modify the temporal organization of behavior, we performed a high resolution analysis of locomotor activity using a video tracking method. Comparing the cycles of resting activity in virgin and mated females, as well as in males, we observed that, in contrast to males and virgins, mated females lose the ability to anticipate the night-day transition when motor activity is analyzed in light: dark cycles. Our results show that this post-mating response is mediated by the action of the sex peptide (SP) in pickpocket (PPK) expressing neurons, since the decreased expression of the SP receptor (SPR) in these neurons restores the ability to anticipate the light / dark transition in the females mated. To analyze the postsynaptic target of PPK-SPR + sensory neurons we used the anterograde trans-tango trans-synaptic tracing tool. Our preliminary data show small later