Male reproductive aging arises via multifaceted mating-dependent sperm and seminal proteome declines, but is postponable in <i>Drosophila</i>.

ABSTRACT: Declining ejaculate performance with male age is taxonomically widespread and has broad fitness consequences. Ejaculate success requires fully functional germline (sperm) and soma (seminal fluid) components. However, some aging theories predict that resources should be preferentially diverted to the germline at the expense of the soma, suggesting differential impacts of aging on sperm and seminal fluid and trade-offs between them or, more broadly, between reproduction and lifespan. While harmful effects of male age on sperm are well known, we do not know how much seminal fluid deteriorates in comparison. Moreover, given the predicted trade-offs, it remains unclear whether systemic lifespan-extending interventions could ameliorate the declining performance of the ejaculate as a whole. Here,

SUBMITTER: Sepil I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7382285 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature