The sex determination gene fruitless is essential for male Aedes aegypti mosquito swarming and attraction to female flight sounds

Summary Aggregating male mosquitoes locate females by showing strong and innate attraction to female flight sounds, with these behaviors forming the basis of mating in the world’s deadliest animal. In contrast, females do not show aggregation or sound attraction behaviors. Despite being documented for almost a century, the molecular underpinnings of these behavioral dimorphisms remain unknown. Here, we found that by disrupting the male-specific isoform of the key sex determination gene fruitless (referred to as fruM) in Aedes aegypti, mutant males behave like females. fruM mutant males show complete abolition of aggregation and sound attraction behaviors, resulting in failure to locate females for mating. We identified strong fruitless expression in control male ears, with the loss of FruM severely disrupting mutant male ability to amplify female flight sounds compared to control males. fruM mutant male ears propagate frequency-specific, sound-evoked electrical signals at about one-sixth the magnitude of control males, significantly reducing the amount of auditory information relayed to the brain. fruitless thus plays a significant role in determining proper male peripheral hearing function, which enables male hearing behaviors essential for mating. Transcriptomic analyses of mosquito ears enabled identification of essential hearing genes under the transcriptional influence of FruM. We propose that FruM fine-tunes the masculinization of mosquito ears through shaping male-specific hearing cellular machineries that support male attraction to female flight sounds. We conclude that FruM is the master regulator of male-specific reproductive behaviors in mosquitoes and propose fruitless, as well as fruitless-dependent genes, as novel targets for control strategies. Highlights FruM is the master regulator of male swarming and attraction to female flight sounds FruM in male ears is essential for male amplification of female flight sounds FruM in male ears modulates sound-evoked electrical signal propagation to the brain FruM regulates essential hearing gene expression Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Footnotes ↵6 Lead contact