Paper title
Piezo-mediated mechanosensation contributes to stabilizing copulation posture and reproductive success in Drosophila males
The paper is available here
We found that Piezo, a mechanosensitive channel, contributes to postural control during copulation in male fruit flies.
We further showed that destabilizing the male copulation posture by blocking Piezo can reduce reproductive performance.
This study reveals that males actively maintain their posture during copulation through mechanosensation, and that doing so contributes to reproductive success.
We expect these findings to help elucidate the full picture of the molecular and neural mechanisms that control copulation behavior in animals.