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Alcohol addiction and sex in flies
As part of a series of studies into addiction, KyungAn Han and colleagues investigated how repeated exposure to alcohol affects the behavior of fruit flies.
In a January 2008 PLoS ONE paper, they report how chronic alcohol exposure affects fly sexual behavior. Flies were treated to a daily dose of ethanol, over the course of several days. Their behavior was compared with that of flies not exposed to ethanol.
Male flies given chronic alcohol exposure were significantly more likely to engage in promiscuous sexual behavior. They made more courtship approaches to females, and they were more likely to court other males. Interestingly, the older the male, the higher the chances of him courting another male after repeated exposure to ethanol.
The researchers also found evidence that dopamine was important in mediating inter-male courtship: when dopamine transmission was blocked, drunken male flies hardly ever courted another male.