Remating and male‐derived nutrients in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Laboratory natural selection and environmental manipulations were used to investigate the importance of male-derived nutrients to female Drosophila melanogaster.No evidence for the importance of such nutrients was found. Females from the same wild type base stock exposed as adults to low quality food did not show elevated fecundity or survival when they remated more frequently, and on high quality food the females showed a 'cost of mating' in reduced survival. Laboratory evolution on low quality food did not lead to elevated rates of remating by females; females from each selection regimen remated more frequently than one another when kept on the food type to which they had been exposed for the previous 5 years, on which they also showed higher fecundity than one another. Even under conditions of extreme nutritional stress, when females were exposed to short term (4-day) cycle of exposure to very low and high quality food, they remated more frequently immediately after exposure to high quality food. The results of this last experiment suggested that, under these circumstances, current nutrition, fecundity or rate of sperm usage was more important than number of sperm in store or cumulative fecundity in determining the probability that a female would remate.

No evidence for optimal fitness at intermediate levels of inbreeding in Drosophila melanogaster

“…Although maternal effects might explain the result in females, it is less obvious how paternal effects from F1 males might influence egg-to-adult viability because, in Drosophila, females are not considered to receive material benefits from mating apart from receiving sperm (Chapman, Trevitt & Partridge, 1994;Pitnick, Spicer & Markow, 1997). A factor that could be producing the decline in eggto-adult viability of offspring from inbred F1 males is the 133 seminal fluid proteins (SFPs), which male Drosophila transfer to females during mating (Swanson et al, 2001;Wolfner, 2002;Findlay et al, 2008).…”

Genetic Variation in Male and Female Reproductive Characters Associated with Sexual Conflict in Drosophila melanogaster

“…Differences in lifespan among females exposed to different male genotypes can be interpreted as a result of variation in the detrimental, rather than beneficial, effects males have on females, since male D. melanogaster do not transfer nutrients to females (Chapman and Partridge, 1994;Pitnick et al, 1997). As shown in Table I Estimating female resistance to male harm is more problematical.…”

Heritability of pre–adult viability differences can explain apparent heritability of sperm displacement ability inDrosophila melanogaster

“…All wild-type £ies used in this experiment were from an outbred`Dahomey' stock, described in Chapman et al (1994). A sepia (se) stock was constructed by backcrossing an se stock to the Dahomey stock en masse for four generations.…”