Figure 4

Taste and calorific value of sugars interact to modulate female reproductive behaviours.

(a) Mean number of copulations (a₁) and progeny (a₂) of one wild-type female housed with a wild-type male. The sweeteners Aspartame was added to the substrate at the indicated concentrations. Error bars indicate S.E.M. (b) Mean number of copulations (b₁) and progeny (b₂) of a Gr64a⁻ mutant female or a wild-type Canton-S female housed with a wild-type male. The Petri dish was layered with increasing doses of glucose. (c) Mean number of copulations (c₁) and progeny (c₂) of one wild-type female housed with one wild-type male on a substrate containing the carbohydrate arabinose (200 mM) and the taste-less carbohydrate sorbitol (200 mM) singly or in combination. The control treatment was housed on an agar only substrate. Effects of different carbohydrates were compared to the agar control using mixed effect models. Bar graphs labeled with same letters are not significantly different from each other. The number of pairs tested is indicated above the bar graphs. See Table S1 for full statistics.