Fig. 2: Peptidergic regulation of the behavioral response to ascr#8 is sex specific.

Screen of FMRFamide-like peptide (flp) defective mutants in response to ascr#8 in SWAA. a Male raw dwell time and b log(fold-change) values revealed specificity of flp-3 in the ascr#8 behavioral response. c A drop avoidance assay was employed to reveal a change in behavioral valence, with flp-3 males avoiding ascr#8 (See Methods for details). d Hermaphrodite raw dwell times and e log(fold-change) values in response to ascr#8 are consistent across flp mutants. f ascr#8 avoidance in hermaphrodites is unaffected by the loss of flp-3. g, i Attractive behavior in response to ascr#8 is restored in flp-3 mutant males by expressing flp-3 under its endogenous promoter. g raw dwell times in males and h log(fold-change) values), as well as i rescue of flp-3 restores avoidance to ascr#8. j–l Expression pattern of pflp-3::flp-3::mCherry in the male tail. Colocalization with gpa-1::GFP in the SPD spicule neurons suggests that flp-3 is expressed in male-specific neurons in the tail (arrows). Asterisk denotes coelomocyte accumulation of GFP. j GFP, k mCherry, l merged image at ~×90 magnification. In panel h, ◊◊p < 0.01 for flp-3 mutant versus transgenic rescue. Light gray denotes spatial controls (“S”) (when applicable), dark gray denotes vehicle controls (“V”), colors denote ascr#8 values (“A”) (him-8, purple; flp-3, teal; flp mutants, blue; transgenic rescues, light blue). ♂ denotes male data, ⚥ denotes hermaphrodite data.