In flies, sexually dimorphic behavior is coordinated in part by a dedicated neural circuitry established by Fruitless (Fru). A handful of receptors, such as GRs and ORs, have been shown to interact with specific pheromones and hydrocarbons and are essential for certain well-known behavioral repertoires in Drosophila. This paper shows that a pair of pickpocket (ppk) family sodium channels also play essential roles in promoting courtship behavior. Critically, its still not clear if this ion channel interacts directly with chemical cues from conspecifics, or if it plays a role in some other signal transduction pathway. It will be interesting to see what closely related paralogues of ppk might exist in drsosophilid taxa with distinct bristle morphologies, and or behavioral phenotypes.
