Sexual Deprivation Increases Ethanol Intake in Drosophila

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1215932
• Publication Date: 2012-03-15T19:09:29Z
• Authors: G. Shohat-Ophir; K. R. Kaun; R. Azanchi; H. Mohammed; U. Heberlein
• Keywords: Male; Receptors, Neuropeptide; Insecta; Arthropoda; Alcohol Drinking; Oleic Acids; Acetates; Ion Channels; Pheromones; Cohort Studies; Reward; flies; Conditioning, Psychological; Animalia; Animals; Drosophila Proteins; Taxonomy; Neurons; Behavior, Animal; Ethanol; Diptera; Neuropeptides; Biodiversity; 3. Good health; Behavior, Addictive; Drosophila melanogaster; fruit flies; Female; Cues

Toward Addiction can result when substances, such as drugs or alcohol, co-opt the brain's natural reward system. Shohat-Ophir et al. (p. 1351 ; see Perspective by Zars ) explored this potential in Drosophila examining relationship between stimulated mating and unnatural offered ethanol consumption. Males deprived of increased consumption ethanol, and, permitted to mate following deprivation, their decreased. At a mechanistic level, neurotransmitter neuropeptide F (NPF), while deprivation decreased NPF levels.