London, July 28 (Reuters): A cluster of nerve cells linked to sexual behaviour could mean the difference between being a success with the ladies or a dismal failure — at least in fruit flies.

Scientists who isolated the cells that control courtship in the male fruit fly believe their findings could hold clues about sexual behaviour in other species, including humans.

“The fruit fly is a model organism whose basic cellular functions are very similar to what they are in people,” said Bruce Baker, of Stanford University in California.

“It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that human sexual behaviours also have underneath them a basic circuitry in the nervous system that mediates attractions and mating.”

Baker and his colleagues had previously identified the master gene, dubbed fruitless, that controls sexual behaviour in male fruit flies.

“We found that the fruitless gene was responsible for building the neuronal circuitry for male courtship,” Baker said in a statement.

In research published in the science journal Nature today, he reported that 60 cells are involved in sexual behaviour. When they don't work properly, male fruit flies cannot complete specific steps of the courtship ritual and are unable to reproduce.