When male and female fruit flies age, their brains become desexualized. Age-related changes take place in both sexes, but the male brain becomes feminized to a larger extent than the female brain becomes masculinized. This is the conclusion of a study performed by a research group at Linköping University. The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
August 9, 2022
When male and female fruit flies age, their brains become desexualized. Age-related changes take place in both sexes, but the male brain becomes feminized to a larger extent than the female brain becomes masculinized. This is the conclusion of a study performed by a research group at Linköping University. The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
It is a well-known fact that weaker individuals cannot afford to « invest » in sexual behaviors to the same extent as their healthier conspecifics. However, it is not clear if aging, which weakens individuals, also leads to a reduced investment in sexual activities. You might think that for individuals close to the end of their lives, going « all in » on reproduction, in order to pass on their genes before it is too late, would be best. Sexual behaviors are directed from the brain, and to find out what happens to sex differences in this tissue when fruit flies age, the researchers have investigated how genes expressed to different degrees in young males and females change over time.
« Our results show that gene expression in male and female brains become more similar with age, and that both sexes contribute to this pattern, » says Dr.
