Fig. 1: Context-dependent differences in song sequencing in D. melanogaster.
From: Flexible circuit mechanisms for context-dependent song sequencing
a, Drosophila male courtship song is structured into bouts comprising two main modes: ‘pulse’ (p) and ‘sine’ (s). We focus on song bout patterning, although the duration, amplitude and spectral modulation of pulse and sine trains constitute other sources of song variability11,12 (Extended Data Fig. 1c). b, Song bouts consist of either simple pulse or sine trains, or complex sequences involving continuous alternations between modes. c, Population-averaged probability (median ± median absolute deviation from the median) of wild-type males singing simple pulse, simple sine or complex bouts at a given mfDist. The grey vertical line indicates the distance threshold of 4 mm used to define far and near song bouts. d, The distribution of song sequence types differs far versus near the female. Complex p are complex bouts starting in pulse mode. Complex s are complex bouts starting in sine mode. Both far from and near the female, simple pulse bouts constituted the majority of all bouts (more than 95% and around 55%, respectively), followed by complex ‘ps...’ bouts near the female (around 30%). Simple sine bouts constituted the minority of bouts at all distances. e, P(female location) during the production of simple pulse (red, right half) versus complex bouts (purple, left half) in male-centric coordinates (male at origin), averaged across recordings. mfAngle is the angle of the female thorax relative to the body axis of the male. Complex bouts are more likely to be produced when females are close and in front of the male. f,g, Average mfDist (f) and mfAngle (g) during simple and complex song bouts. h, Average duration of simple and complex song bouts. For c–h, n = 20 wild-type males (biological replicates) courting wild-type females (see Supplementary Table 2 for genotypes). For d, f–h, central mark indicates the median; the bottom and top edges of the box indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively.Whiskers extend to 1.5 times the interquartile range away from the box edges. For f–h, Wilcoxon rank-sum test for equal medians. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, NS, not significant.
