Jayawal, Vivek
Jimenez, Jamie
Magie, Robert
Nguyen, Kien
Clifton, Bryan
Yeh, Shudan
Ranz, Jose M.
Jayaswal, Vivek
2017-12-13
Sperm competition is a post-copulatory sexual selection mechanism in species in which females mate with multiple males. Despite its evolutionary relevance in shaping male traits, the genetic mechanisms underlying sperm competition are poorly understood. A recently originated multigene family specific to D. melanogaster, Sdic, is important for the outcome of sperm competition in doubly-mated females, although the mechanistic nature of this phenotype remained unresolved. Here we compared doubly-mated females, second mated to either Sdic knockout or non-knockout males, and directly visualize sperm dynamics in the female reproductive tract. We found that a less effective removal of first-to-mate male's sperm within the female's sperm storage organs is consistent with a reduced sperm competitive ability of the Sdic knockout males. Our results highlight the role young genes can play in driving the evolution of sperm competition.
<div class="o-metadata__file-usage-entry">Sperm counts in the reproductive tract of doubly-mated females<div class="o-metadata__file-description">Assays were performed to evaluate how sperm dynamics in the reproductive tract of doubly-mated females differs when the second-to-mate experimental male is either possessing (Sdic+ ) or lacking (Sdic- ) the entire D. melanogaster-specific Sdic multigene family. Virgin females were first mated to a reference Sdic+ male and then to one of the two possible experimental males (Sdic+ or
Sdic- ) two days later. Females were randomly assigned to one of three time points after the end of the second mating period (30 min, 1 h and 45 min, and 2 days) and subsequently flash frozen. Female reproductive tracts were dissected and the sperm from the different males were counted using a fluorescent microscope. Reference and experimental sperm fluoresce red and green, respectively.Sperm counting was performed for the bursa and both sperm storage organs, i.e. the paired spermatheca and the seminal receptacle.</div><div class="o-metadata__file-name">Sperm counts in doubly-mated females.xlsx<br></div></div><p>Funding provided by: National Science Foundation<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001<br>Award Number: MCB-1157876</p>
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j1t17
oai:zenodo.org:4952894
Zenodo
https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13417
https://zenodo.org/communities/dryad
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode
Evolutionary genomics
Sdic
sperm displacement
species-specific gene
Data from: A species-specific multigene family mediates differential sperm displacement in Drosophila melanogaster
info:eu-repo/semantics/other