Exposure of Drosophila melanogaster to cigarette smoke extract changes its sexual behavior

Introduction:Drosophila melanogaster is a widely studied animal model in many areas of human disease. Drosophila exposure to smoke ingredients has been studied in the context of COPD and asthma in a few studies, however several aspects of the detrimental effects of smoke have not been studied. We assessed the effects of different concentrations of cigarette smoke extract (CSE) exposure on the sexual behavior of Drosophila melanogaster. Materials-Methods: Zurich wild type flies were cultured in standard conditions and placed in vials containing CSE infused media at concentrations of 10%, 25%, 50% CSE. Phosphate Buffer Saline (PBS) was used as control. 15 flies (10 females, 5 males) per condition were exposed for 3 days. On the 10th- 12th day, 6 couples of virgin flies were collected from each condition and isolated per gender. On the 13th day, they were placed in mating wells and their behavior was recorded in 30 minute videos. Four courtship phenotypes were studied (wing extension, tapping, abdomen bending, attempted copulation), the attempts needed for copulation, and courtship success (copulation/no copulation). Results: 45 couples were studied per condition. The analysis showed treatment-dependent variation in abdomen bending and copulation attempts per minute (p Discussion: Our findings indicate a tendency to more aggressive male courtship behavior at low CSE concentration (10% CSE), which however did not lead to higher courtship success rates. Future experiments could assess the CSE effect on male female fertility.