运气比较好，虽然刚刚做完rotation,老板就答应我跟去cold spring harbour去开会。会议的题目是eukaryotic mRNA processing. 作mRNA processing的很多试验室，包括欧洲的和一些韩国，日本的也都来了。我的感觉是人很多，虽然实验室的postdoc一直说不算是很多的那种。会议议程很紧张，从礼拜三下午过去注册安定下来到礼拜六之间都是白天20个talk,晚上n多的poster要看。从mRNA的transport和translation到spicing的机制，再到和我做的东西相关的alternative splicing，覆盖的面很广。一开始听talk的时候还是挺认真地，听到后来就马虎了，觉的boring的topic就随便左耳朵进右耳朵出了。印象最深刻的是Joan Steitz主讲的woman in science的一个topic.老奶奶很慈祥的跟我们讲妇女在biology科学领域的各种bias.什么女faculty少等等。然后讲了NAS组织的一个有8个女人和2个男人组成的comittee,研究为什么会有这种bias.他们根据其他人提出的各种理由（比如女的没有男的适合做science,女的没有男的对science感兴趣，等等）进行社会学调查，然后一一推翻这种结论。他们把这个现象归结为一种无意识的偏见的结果。有一个比较有意思的例子是，他们参考PI给男phd和女phd写的推荐信.男phd的推荐信里面介绍学术成就学术潜力等等比女的多，而女的推荐信里面讲family和personality的成分比较多。。。。。。最有意思的是后来的讨论，有7个女的发言了，只有两个男的发言。7个女的主要是补充了Joan的观点和看法，并且提出学校和社会应该做那些来改善这个趋势。而仅有的两个男的提的基本上都是对Joan提出的那些社会心理学调查的不是很尖锐的argue.因为Joan是大牛，大家不会提出尖锐的看法，但是看得出来男的也是在维护自己的利益。我不知道女的是不是受到很明显的无意思的偏见了，但是美国人追求平横的特点毕露无遗了。不得不承认的时女性在science上面是弱势群体，所以成功的女性就会呼吁社会，提出各种观点来表明这种不平衡的来源的不合理和对science的不利。不过谁也难说，也许是不合理的。我想一时半时女性的地位也不会一下子的改变，这种地位的会随着女性在领域中贡献的越来越大而得到逐渐的改变。很难得的是Joan的评论没有很尖锐，呼吁的是大家对这个问题的重视和研究。深刻的体会到了民主社会的“力量",他们给与弱者发言反抗的权利，但是反抗基本不是改变局势的最大力量。

 

cold spring harbour还是挺漂亮的，吃的东西也很不错，最有意思的是一间间的cabin。上面写的是很多牛人的名字，一开始我还以为是他们过来的时候会住在那边，后来才知道原来是给来参加meeting的人提供住宿用的，每间cabin都一样的布置。在没多少的空余时间里逛了逛，据说James Waston还住在那边，但
是我没有逛到他们家去。天气好的时候，在靠近港的小路上走走感觉还是不错的，可惜那几天天气不是很好，比较的热。

还有一个大的收获就是net work.认识了一些人，也知道了ｎｅｔ　ｗｏｒｋ和包装的重要性．．．．．．．做什么都要学会去卖
、 

不知道TT选择去Barca是下了一个怎么样的决心？原本在这里，有你爱的和爱你的人，有你的恩师，有一群把你视为大哥的人，有把你看成是国王的可爱的球迷，记载了你过去的梦想和辉煌。但是，你还是选择离开，你不想给自己留下遗憾。也许会有种种的议论和回忆，但是永远敬佩的是你的勇气。

 

最后，生日快乐，祝你在Noucamp成功

 

 

除非是一个特殊的日子，要不然让你记住上个礼拜的这时候大概是做什么都很难记住。不，其实如果生活是很平淡的话，那根本就不需要记，每天的生活大抵都是差不多。不过差不多中也有变化的东西，也许变得最多但是最不容易剧变的是你自己的心态了。这也是最难最难记住的事情。也许昨天傍晚的时候，你在湖边散步，看到在血红的夕阳下一群鸭子在游泳，你会有所感慨，或者是研究。但是到了今天，基本上你已经忘掉了，也许记住的只有鸭子。人的脑子就是这么的奇怪，突然某一天你又想起来某时某刻的心境了，顿时感慨一番，如果身处的环境和你的感慨很般配的话，感觉真的不错。但也有这么一种情况，就是你有很复杂的心境，然后环境不对，或者脑子短路了，就像我一样，只能说说在夕阳下的鸭子了。

 

8月12号是我来美国的一年纪念日，没什么太特别的纪念方式，没有给家里打个电话，也没有给朋友们发个信息，连那个日期我也是问了别人才知道的。不过平淡的日子，到以后说不定就成了标志性的东西。第一次做什么事情都是想起来都是很有意思，去年的时候觉得家里面都是有一股香味的，然后晚上九点钟天黑前的两个钟头里面，外面很美。现在已然是什么时候天黑都不知道了。

 

 

 

 

Fly male courtship---not only the brain is turned on

 

Drosophila mating behavior depends critically on sexual dimorphic nervous circulates in the CNS. Specifically, several neuron clusters hallmarked by the expression of male specific fruitless are necessary and sufficient for male courtship behavior, which consists a stereotyped steps controlled by the same master regulatory mechanism used in the somatic sex differentiation. Alternative splicing of double and fruitless are controlled by splicing factor tra and tra2, resulting in the formation of sex specific isoforms. Although it is well established that sexual dimorphic expression of these genes in CNS are critical to the sexual behavior, there are evidence that other tissues are also involved. First, there are genes expressed in a male specific manner in tissues other than CNS and RNAi know down affects courtship behavior. Second, in female flies masculinized with Male specific fruitless, the courtship bahavior is not as robust as in wild type male fly.

 

The paper talks about role of adult fat body in drosophila male courtship. Drosophila  fat body  is the major secretory tissue in both larvae and adult fly. It secretes factors into the circulatory system. There are gene expressed specifically in male fat body (takeout is the one investigated here), which makes the fat body has sexual identity. In order to study its role in courtship, it is necessary to change the fat body identity genetically.

 

First, they use the promoter region of fat body specific expressed gene lsp2 to generate Gal4 driver lines. By using two different length of the promoter region, they successfully generated Gal4 lines that can drive expression of exogenous gene specifically in larval fat body only and both of the larval and adult fat body.

 

Second, they use the gal4 line to express tra in the fly fat body. Expression of tra can sexually transform male cells into female cells, hence femilize the male fat body. While tra expression in the larvae fat body does not affect the male courtship, expression of tra in the adult fat body significant reduced the courtship index. Detailed analysis of individual courtship steps indicate that the sustention rather than the initiation of courtship is affected in the mutants.

 

If it is true that male identity fat body cells are involved in the male courtship, one can anticipate an increase in the courtship index of Fru ^M females (which have the male specific courtship neuronal circulate). In order to  masculinize the female fat body, they used the Gal4 line to drive the expression of a tra2 interfering RNAi construct. Mutation of tra2 can transform chromosomal female into phenotypic male with male courtship behavior. Consistent with the hypothesis, their result show that Tra2 RNAi construct can increase the Fru^M female courtship in a dosage dependent manner. Reduced endogenous tra-1 function allowed father increased courtship by the RNAi construct.

 

So how the fat body get involved in the courtship behavior? One possible mechanism is that fat body can regulate the sexual dimorphic expression of Fruitless and the formation of male specific neuronal circulates. To test this hypothesis, the author exam the expression of male and female specific fruitless in male flies with traF femilized fat body. The result showd that then sex specific fruitless expression is independent of the sexual identity of the fat body.

 

Another mechanism is that fat body can secrete the sexual specific expressed factor in to the hemolymph and influence the brain function. Takeout is one of the secreted factors they detected in the circulation system. While they express the takeout  in another secretory tissue, it can rescue the courtship defects in take our mutants. These results suggested that fat body plays a role in male courtship by secrete sexual specific factors into the hemolymph and influence the CNS function. Although what are the mechanisms of the secreted factors remains unknown, it is intriguing to propose that fat body the master regulator of hormone regulation of sexual behavior in fly.      

 

 

Reference:

 

A role for the adult fat body in drosophila male courtship behavior. PloS Genetics, Volume 3 0115, 2007.