Social isolation upregulates takeout expression in female Drosophila melanogaster to promote sucrose preference.

Abstract

Previous research suggests that social isolation induces changes in gene expression that encode a starvation-like brain state and reduce sleep. However, the extent to which social isolation alters behaviors via sex-specific brain changes is unclear. Here, we use Drosophila melanogaster to explore sex differences in isolation-induced behavioral and transcriptomic changes. Male and female adult flies were isolated for seven days, and multiple behavioral sex-based differences were identified through tests of activity, motivation, aggression, and sugar preference. RNA-seq analysis also identified several candidate genes that were associated with sex differences in isolation-induced behavioral changes. Takeout (to) expression and sucrose selection were upregulated exclusively in females following social isolation. Following to knockdown in to-expressing cells, sucrose preference decreased in socially isolated females but increased in males. Overall, our results suggest that manipulating to expression influences sucrose choice in opposite directions between females and males following social isolation. It is possible that isolation-induced to overexpression in non-neuronal cells in the female head could contribute to sex differences in this behavior.