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Social isolation upregulates takeout expression in female Drosophila melanogaster to promote sucrose preference.

Overview

Authors: Elisabeth A Tawa1,2, Lisa Schneper1, Katherine I Cho1, Mindy Sim1, Eve Schoeffler1, Daniel A Notterman1
ORCID iDs: Elisabeth A Tawa, Lisa Schneper, Mindy Sim, Eve Schoeffler, Daniel A Notterman
  1. Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States of America
  2. Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States of America
Institutions: Princeton University (United States)
Journal: PLoS genetics, volume 22, issue 8, article e1011985
Dates: received 6 December 2025; accepted 21 July 2026; published online 10 August 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011985 · PMID 42574455 · PMCID PMC13475983 · OpenAlex W7202118893
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: data only
Categories: drosophila (organism), cellular / molecular (subfield)
Methods: Spectral & time-frequency, Statistics
MeSH: Drosophila Proteins*, Social Isolation*, Sucrose*, Animals, Behavior, Animal, Brain, Drosophila melanogaster, Female, Food Preferences, Male, Sex Characteristics, Up-Regulation (* major topic)
Topic: Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research (Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: Princeton Neuroscience Institute; Princeton University; Princeton University, Center for Health and Wellbeing
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 59 references in the paper

Abstract

Previous research suggests that social isolation induces changes in gene expression that encode a starvation-like brain state and reduce sleep. However, the extent to which social isolation alters behaviors via sex-specific brain changes is unclear. Here, we use Drosophila melanogaster to explore sex differences in isolation-induced behavioral and transcriptomic changes. Male and female adult flies were isolated for seven days, and multiple behavioral sex-based differences were identified through tests of activity, motivation, aggression, and sugar preference. RNA-seq analysis also identified several candidate genes that were associated with sex differences in isolation-induced behavioral changes. Takeout (to) expression and sucrose selection were upregulated exclusively in females following social isolation. Following to knockdown in to-expressing cells, sucrose preference decreased in socially isolated females but increased in males. Overall, our results suggest that manipulating to expression influences sucrose choice in opposite directions between females and males following social isolation. It is possible that isolation-induced to overexpression in non-neuronal cells in the female head could contribute to sex differences in this behavior.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

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Data

Datasets cited

Data Availability

The RNA-seq data discussed in this publication have been deposited in NCBI’s Gene Expression Omnibus (Edgar et al., 2002) and are accessible through GEO Series accession number GSE336379 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE336379).

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 6 authors, 12 MeSH terms, 3 funders, 53 references.

Cite

This paper

Tawa, E. A., Schneper, L., Cho, K. I., Sim, M., Schoeffler, E., & Notterman, D. A. (2026). Social isolation upregulates takeout expression in female Drosophila melanogaster to promote sucrose preference. PLoS genetics, 22(8), e1011985. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011985

BibTeX

@article{tawa2026social,
author = {Tawa, Elisabeth A and Schneper, Lisa and Cho, Katherine I and Sim, Mindy and Schoeffler, Eve and Notterman, Daniel A},
title = {{Social isolation upregulates takeout expression in female Drosophila melanogaster to promote sucrose preference}},
journal = {PLoS genetics},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
volume = {22},
number = {8},
pages = {e1011985},
publisher = {PLOS},
issn = {1553-7390},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1011985},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011985},
pmid = {42574455},
pmcid = {PMC13475983}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Tawa, Elisabeth A
AU - Schneper, Lisa
AU - Cho, Katherine I
AU - Sim, Mindy
AU - Schoeffler, Eve
AU - Notterman, Daniel A
TI - Social isolation upregulates takeout expression in female Drosophila melanogaster to promote sucrose preference
T2 - PLoS genetics
J2 - PLoS Genet
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/10
VL - 22
IS - 8
SP - e1011985
SN - 1553-7390
PB - PLOS
DO - 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011985
UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011985
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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