Developmental environment mediates male seminal protein investment in Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: Males of many species fine-tune their ejaculates in response to sperm competition risk. Resource availability and the number of competitors during development can also strongly influence sperm production. However, despite the key role of seminal proteins in mediating reproductive processes, it is unclear whether seminal protein investment is dependent on the developmental environment.We manipulated the developmental environment of Drosophila melanogaster by rearing flies at low and high density. As expected, this resulted in large and small (i.e. high and low condition) adult phenotypes, respectively.As predicted, large males produced more of two key seminal proteins, sex peptide (SP) and ovulin, and were more successful at obtaining matings with both virgin and previously mated fem

SUBMITTER: Wigby S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4974917 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature