Eau de fruit fly
A single scent moves female fruit files to swoon and males to flee. The difference, new research shows, is in the brain’s wiring.
Male flies on the prowl put out a pheromone called cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA) that both sexes detect with scent-sensing cells on their antennae.
To explain how cVA prompts such different reactions in male and female flies, researchers traced the circuitry of the cells connecting the antennae to the brain. In the brain, the cells branch out and make connections with other neurons. The researchers discovered that wiring between the cVA–detecting cells and the brain is different in males than in females.