Scientists Identify Gene For Sexual Behavior In ...( l School. These findings on fru pr...)

"These findings on fru provide a starting point for a whole host of other studies, to learn how sexual behavior and sexual orientation are specified by genes and controlled by the nervous system," Wasserman said.

"Our data so far suggest that fru is involved in interactions between a handful of specific brain cells that in some way direct the various steps of male courtship behavior and copulation," Taylor said. "This is an important tool -- here we have a gene that allows us to extract some behavioral element and then go into the nervous system and see how it is organized."

"This is a spectacular example of the value of open exchange at scientific conferences," said Wasserman. The labs joined forces at an international meeting when he and Baker realized that each of their groups had half the essential information needed to clone and understand the role of the fru gene. "We had a map, and they knew where the crucial point in the map was," Wasserman said. "To go on and understand how the gene works called for the skills of the other two labs as well."

Important evidence that fru is the gene normally controlling most male sex behavior in the fruit fly comes from the fact that it fits in a hierarchy of genes that governs all other aspects of sex as well. In Drosophila males, "doublesex" (dsx) commands the development of male sex organs and other male characteristics, while "fruitless" (fru) commands male sexual behavior. Genes higher up in the family tree act to turn off dsx and fru so that female flies do not exhibit male sex organs or male behavior. (courtesy: Bruce Baker, Stanford University) Could human sexual behavior be commanded by a single gene? So far, no gene similar to fru has been found in humans or other animals. But geneticists have been studying fruit flies for more than 80 years to learn how genes instruct the building of the fly's body and the function of i
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Contact: Janet Basu
janet@news-service.stanford.edu
415-723-7582
Stanford University
13-Dec-1996