Chemical mate choice copying in Drosophila melanogaster
Data files
Apr 21, 2025 version files 21.32 KB
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Chemical_mate_choice_copying_data_analysis.R
2.68 KB
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Data_Demonstrator_Experiment.csv
5.26 KB
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Data_M4_Extract_Experiment.csv
3.20 KB
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Data_M7_Extract_Experiment.csv
4.48 KB
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Data_two_demonstrators_Experiment.csv
1.38 KB
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README.md
4.32 KB
Abstract
Mate choice is a critical decision especially for females that requires time and energy to assess potential partners’ genetic quality. Consequently, in many species, females have evolved the ability to utilize social information by copying the mate choices of others, usually based on visual cues. However, many species, especially invertebrates, primarily rely on chemical not visual cues. Using chemical rather than visual cues provides several advantages such as not requiring active observation of copulations. Despite that, empirical evidence for the existence of chemical mate choice copying is scarce. Using Drosophila melanogaster, we provide the first demonstration of chemical mate choice copying. Females exposed to a recently mated select the same male genotype as the demonstrator female mated with at a higher frequency than expected by chance. Chemical mate choice copying requires sensing both male and female cues, which might indicate that other females have chosen that male genotype. Our work suggests that females, in the presence of mated females, increase choosiness at the virgin stage, elevating sexual selection on male traits. This study provides novel evidence that exploiting social information is more prevalent in flies than previously assumed.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.69p8cz9dx
Description of the data and file structure
README for the manuscript "Chemical mate choice copying in Drosophila melanogaster"
Bloo Mitchell, Alexandria Abbott, Ashanti Brown, Lacy N Skinner, Elmira Umarova, Philip Kohlmeier
Summary:
Mate choice copying is a widespread social learning behavior where individuals base their mate selection on the choices of others. In this study, we provide the first empirical evidence of chemical mate choice copying in Drosophila melanogaster. We demonstrate that observer females, when exposed to recently mated females, preferentially select males of the same genotype as the demonstrator’s mate. Our results suggest that chemical cues left on mated females serve as social information, influencing female mate preferences. This finding broadens our understanding of mate choice mechanisms and highlights the importance of chemical communication in insect social behavior.
Description of data files and columns:
Provided are four data files in .csv format and an R script in a .R format.
File 1: Filename: Data Demonstrator Experiment.csv
Description: Includes the data presented in Figure 2A. Each row represents the choice of one female observer.
Column A ("Female_choice_for_M4"):
0 = Observer female did not select M4 male
1 = Observer female selected M4 male
Column B ("Female_choice_for_M7"):
0 = Observer female did not select M7 male
1 = Observer female selected M7 male
Column C ("Treatment"):
M4_demonstrator = An Observer female was exposed to a demonstrator that was mated with an M4 male
M7_demonstrator = Observer female was exposed to a demonstrator that was mated with an M7 male
No demonstrator = Observer female was not exposed to a demonstrator
The = Observer female was exposed to a virgin demonstrator
File 2: Filename: Data M4 Extract Experiment.csv
Description: Includes the data presented in Figure 2B. Each row represents the choice of one observer female.
Column A ("Date"):
Date on which the respective datapoint was collected
Column B ("Female_choice_for_M4"):
0 = Observer female did not select M4 male
1 = Observer female selected M4 male
Column C ("Female_choice_for_M7"):
0 = Observer female did not select M7 male
1 = Observer female selected M7 male
Column D ("Treatment"):
M4_males = Observer female was exposed to a CHC extract of M4 males
M4_mated_OR_demonstrator_extract = Observer female was exposed to a CHC extract of OR females mated with M4 males
File 3: Filename: Data M7 Extract Experiment.csv
Description: Includes the data presented in Figure 2C. Each row represents the choice of one female observer.
Column A ("Date"):
Date on which the respective datapoint was collected
Column B ("Female_choice_for_M4"):
0 = Observer female did not select M4 male
1 = Observer female did select M4 male
Column C ("Female_choice_for_M7"):
0 = Observer female did not select M7 male
1 = Observer female did select M7 male
Column D ("Treatment"):
M7_males = Observer female was exposed to a CHC extract of M7 males
M7_mated_OR_demonstrator_extract = Observer female was exposed to a CHC extract of OR females mated with M7 males
File 4: Filename: Data two demonstrators Experiment.csv
Description: Includes the data presented in Figure 3. Each row represents the choice of one observer female.
Column A ("Date"):
Date on which the respective datapoint was collected
Column B ("Female_choice_for_M4"):
0 = Observer female did not select M4 male
1 = Observer female did select M4 male
Column C ("Female_choice_for_M7")
0 = Observer female did not select M7 male
1 = Observer female did select M7 male
Column D ("Treatment"):
2-demonstrator = Observer female was exposed to two demonstrators (one mated with M4, the other with M7 males)
File 5: Filename: analysis mate copying.R
Description: Includes the code generated to analyze the data in each of the four provided .csv data files.
All analyses were run in R 4.1.1.
The packages car (v 3.0-11) and lme4 (v 1.1-27.1) were used.
To run the analysis, load the provided script into R. Add the path to the folder into which the data sheets have been copied into the command given in line 3 ("setwd("")).
Then, run the script.