THE sexual preferences of drunk fruit flies will help reveal how alcohol loosens human sexual inhibitions, according to researchers studying the effect of repeated alcohol consumption on the flies鈥� courtship behaviour.
and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, used a chamber dubbed the 鈥淔lypub鈥� to observe the influence of alcohol on the sexual behaviour of male Drosophila flies. The researchers through the Flypub鈥檚 transparent ceiling.
Male Drosophila will normally only court females, following them and vibrating their wings in a courtship 鈥渟ong鈥� before attempting to copulate. But with repeated doses of alcohol, homosexual courtship became common (PLoS ONE, ). Han has shown that the effect of alcohol on flies鈥� sexual behaviour depends on the neurotransmitter dopamine, and argues that the flies provide a good model for exploring how alcohol affects human sexual behaviour.
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