%0 Journal Article %A Kathleen M. Zelle %A Xitong Liang %A Yehuda Ben-Shahar %T Pleiotropic chemoreceptors facilitate the maintenance of signal-receptor coupling in pheromonal communication %D 2017 %R 10.1101/124305 %J bioRxiv %P 124305 %X Sex pheromones are essential for the maintenance of prezygotic behavioral mating barriers between related animal species. Once established, quantitative or structural changes in either the pheromonal signal or pheromone receptors should carry a fitness cost, and therefore, are expected to be under purifying selection. However, because pheromone production and perception are two independent biological processes that typically reside in different tissues and cell types, it is puzzling how, once evolved, the functional coupling of pheromone-receptor pairs remains stable on an evolutionary timescale. Here we demonstrate that in Drosophila, one possible molecular solution to this conundrum is facilitated by the action of pleiotropic chemoreceptors, which play a role in both the perception of pheromones by the nervous system and their synthesis in oenocytes. Specifically, we demonstrate that the gustatory receptor Gr8a functions in both the chemosensory system and oenocytes. Genetic, behavioral, and chemical analyses reveal that the action of Gr8a is consistent with its dual role in the perception and production of an inhibitory mating chemical signal. Therefore, our studies provide an elegant, and a relatively simple molecular explanation to a long-standing evolutionary genetic conundrum.One Sentence Summary The Drosophila chemoreceptor Gr8a contributes to the maintenance of pheromonal signal-receptor coupling via its pleiotropic action in both the perception and production of mating pheromones. %U https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2017/04/08/124305.full.pdf