Fig. 3

Brain pickpocket neurons are part of the circuit directing egg-laying. A Schematic of the intersectional gene expression approach to direct expression of tetanus toxin (TNT) to brain ppk expressing neurons using the brain-expressed otdflp and UAS FRTGFPstopFRTTNT. B–D Representative genital tracts of indicated genotypes showing CD8GFP expression in ppk neurons. Note that intersectional directed expression of ppk to the head in ppkGAL4/UAS FRTGFPstopFRTCD8GFP; otdflp (C) removes expression in genital tract neurons. E Receptivity of control and females expressing TNT in all (ppkGAL4) or only brain ppk neurons (ppkGAL4; UAS stop TNT/otdflp) after sex-peptide (SP, black) or Ringer’s (R, white) injection measured by counting mating females in a 1-h time period 3 h after SP or R injection, respectively. The means with the standard error for three experiments with 10–24 females each are shown, and statistically significant differences from ANOVA post hoc pairwise comparisons are indicated by different letters (a–d: P≤0.05, e ns). F Oviposition of control and females expressing TNT in all (ppkGAL4) or only brain ppk neurons (ppkGAL4; UAS stop TNT/otdflp) after sex-peptide (SP, black) or Ringer’s (R, white) injection shown as means of eggs laid in 18 h with the standard error for 6–10 females, respectively. Statistically significant differences from ANOVA post hoc pairwise comparisons are indicated by different letters (P≤0.001). G Number of stage 14 oocytes present in ovaries of control and females expressing TNT in all (ppkGAL4) or only brain ppk neurons (ppkGAL4; UAS stop TNT/otdflp) shown as means with the standard error for six ovaries. Statistically significant differences from ANOVA post hoc pairwise comparisons are indicated by different letters (P≤0.001). The data underlying the presented graphs are in Additional file 6