Heterozygous males initiate a robust heterosexual courtship of mature wild-type CantonS females as early as 11 hours old (wild-type CantonS males start courting mature females at 17 hours old). The mutant males also mate earlier than control males: when 19 hours old, 33% of mutant heterozygous males mate during the first 10 minutes (wild-type CantonS males initiate copulation only when 28 hours old).
The median lifespan for prosV60 animals (the age after egg laying at which 50% of homozygotes have died) is 12.25 days at 25oC.
Homozygous second instar larvae show normal or nearly normal responses to 0.1M sucrose and to 0.3M NaCl in a taste response assay.
The courtship index of heterozygous males towards decapitated Canton-S males is not significantly different from that of wild-type males towards decapitated Canton-S males. Homozygous flies appear selectively disadvantaged in the presence of prosV60/TM3 heterozygotes; after more than 50 generations in a stock in which prosV60 is maintained over TM3, the frequency of homozygous flies stabilised at around 30-35%.
