Best image prize for "Choosey female"

Dr. Jean-Christophe Billeter, tenure tracker at the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES) has been awarded first prize for his image "Choosey female" during the "Art of Neuroscience”, an international meeting organised by the Dutch Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the NIN.

The confocal microscopy image shows neurons (green) that innervate muscles (red) of the reproductive tract of a female fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). Females use these neurons to influence the storage and use of sperm received from males. This neuromuscular system may be a mechanistic basis for female cryptic choice, a phenomenon in which females exert choice after mating on whose sperm fertilize their eggs. Testing this hypothesis is part of the PhD project of Meghan Laturney at GELIFES, funded by an NWO Open Programma grant.