Sexual detection: mechanisms underlying adaptive reproductive plasticity

An important part of success in competition is to respond to the rapidly changing environments in which we often find ourselves. A familiar example is 'speech accommodation', where individuals, often unintentionally, adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around them. Fruitfly males have adopted this principle and are able to show highly precise responses to their social and sexual environment. Following detection of conspecific rivals, males transfer more ejaculate proteins to females and sire more offspring. They are even able to alter the composition of the ejaculate that they transfer. Males can switch their 'rivals responses' on and off with great accuracy and speed.
The overarching aim is to find out how males can do this. Our recent studies support that males can potentially use different mechanisms, to turn genes on / off, remove inhibitors of gene expression and change the way that ejaculate proteins are made and expelled.