Volatile yeast fermentation products such as ethyl acetate 16, 17, 18 are attractive to flies and promote aggregation.
Hedonic glands full#
melanogaster has a strong bond with yeast, which is an important protein source in its natural habitat and is necessary for the full development of its offspring 16. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has long been used to understand the mechanisms controlling reproductive behaviours 15. Yet mechanisms allowing such coupling of food availability and reproduction are poorly understood.’ The ability to sense when nutrition is available and couple it with sexual activity would provide a mechanism to maximize reproductive output in varying environments. However environmental conditions can be unpredictable, because they vary stochastically, necessitating animals to develop mechanisms for adapting their reproductive output to acute fluctuations in food availability. Food availability fluctuates periodically during the year and many animals use photoperiod to be reproductively active during seasons when food is plentiful 14. This shows the existence of mechanisms preventing reproduction in conditions unsupportive of offspring survival. In mammals, poor nutritional conditions delay the onset of sexual activity in malnourished prepubescent females, reduce ovulation rate and can even result in termination of pregnancy in case of acute food shortage 12, 13. Therefore, production of offspring puts high nutritional demands on females, which explains the close association often observed between sexual activity and food availability 11. Food availability is paramount because it provides the energy for both the production of eggs and the survival of offspring after birth. Because of these costs, females are predicted to determine an optimal number of copulations based on maximizing the number of offspring they produce in a given environment 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. The act of mating may be costly to Drosophila females as it has been shown to reduce their lifespan, increase the risk of infection and cause physical damage 1, 2, 3, 4. These findings provide mechanisms through which females may maximize reproductive output in changing environments. Integration of nutritional and sensory values would ensure that there are sufficient internal nutrients for egg production as well as sufficient environmental nutrients for offspring survival. A similar interaction between nutritional and hedonic value applies to sugars where taste and caloric value only increase sexual receptivity when combined. Here we show that yeast increases female sexual receptivity through interaction between its protein content and its odorous fermentation product acetic acid, sensed by the Ionotropic odorant receptor neuron Ir75a. Yet mechanisms coupling food and sex are poorly understood. Since yeast and sugars are important nutritional pillars for Drosophila, availability of these foods should inform female reproductive behaviours. For Drosophila melanogaster females, this relationship is especially intimate because their offspring develop on food. Sage, 2007.Food and sex often go hand in hand because of the nutritional cost of reproduction. Positive Psychology: The Scientific and Practical Explorations of Human Strengths. “On Happiness and Human Potentials: A Review of Research on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being.” Annual Review of Psychology, vol. “The Hedonic Treadmill – Are We Forever Chasing Rainbows?” PositivePsychology, 11 February 2019. “What Is Eudaimonic Happiness?” Psychology Today, 2 January 2019.
“An Overview of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being Concepts.” The Routledge Handbook of Media Use and Well-Being, edited by Leonard Reinecke and Mary Beth Oliver, Routledge, 2016. “An Exploration of the Well-Being benefits of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Behaviour.” The Journal of Positive Psychology, vol.
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