Sperm reduces female longevity and increases melanization of the spermatheca in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris L.

Greeff, Michael; Schmid‐Hempel, Paul

doi:10.1007/s00040-008-1007-4

Cited by 25 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Although the actual mechanism remains unknown, male genotype also influences queen survival (Korner and Schmid-Hempel 2003). Greeff and Schmid-Hempel (2008) reported that both queens and the males obviously benefit from prolonged survival of the hibernating queen because any sexual conflict is unlikely to occur during this period. Baer and SchmidHempel (2005) found that despite receiving approximately the same total amount of sperm, queens inseminated with a mixture of sperm from two males had a decreased hibernation success compared with queens inseminated with sperm from a single male.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Male remating and its influences on queen colony foundation success in the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris

Gösterit

Gürel

2016

Apidologie

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-In most bumblebee species, queens mate with only one male, but males can mate more than once. However, the effects of male remating on colony foundation success of queens remain poorly understood. To test for effects of male remating, we assigned Bombus terrestris queens randomly to one of two groups: virgin males or nonvirgin males that have mated once before. When males were allowed to mate for a second time with virgin queens, 58.57 % successfully remated. There was no significant difference in queen hibernation survival between groups, but queens mated with non-virgin males were more successful in founding a colony, and produced more workers and males than queens mated with virgin males. The mean copulation duration for the second mating of males (48.02 ± 14.36 min) was substantially longer than for the first mating (32.44 ± 8.74 min). Results also showed that male weight influenced both male remating success and copulation duration.Bombus terrestris / mating behavior / copulation duration / male weight / colony development

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Male remating and its influences on queen colony foundation success in the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris

Gösterit

Gürel

2016

Apidologie

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“…(3) Pathogenically, disease transmission may be increased under heightened mating frequency or male presence (see Daly 1978). Accordingly, female fitness could be compromised via this route of sexual conflict (Greeff and Schmid‐Hempel 2008), especially as immune function may be decreased by reproductive activities such as mating (Siva‐Jothy et al 1998). However, again we might expect to see a concurrent increase in female mortality and this was not seen here.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Evolution Exposes Female and Male Responses to Sexual Selection and Conflict in Tribolium Castaneum

et al. 2010

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Between-individual variance in potential reproductive rate theoretically creates a load in reproducing populations by driving sexual selection of male traits for winning competitions, and female traits for resisting the costs of multiple mating. Here, using replicated experimental evolution under divergent operational sex ratios (OSR, 9:1 or 1:6 ♀:♂) we empirically identified the parallel reproductive fitness consequences for females and males in the promiscuous flour beetle Tribolium castaneum. Our results revealed clear evidence that sexual conflict resides within the T. castaneum mating system. After 20 generations of selection, females from female-biased OSRs became vulnerable to multiple mating, and showed a steep decrease in reproductive fitness with an increasing number of control males. In contrast, females from male-biased OSRs showed no change in reproductive fitness, irrespective of male numbers. The divergence in reproductive output was not explained by variation in female mortality. Parallel assays revealed that males also responded to experimental evolution: individuals from male-biased OSRs obtained 27% greater reproductive success across 7-day competition for females with a control male rival, compared to males from the female-biased lines. Subsequent assays suggest that these differences were not due to postcopulatory sperm competitiveness, but to precopulatory/copulatory competitive male mating behavior. K E Y W O R D S :Cost of mating, flour beetles, male mating behavior, mating strategies, polyandry, sperm competition.

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“…Insemination might thus trigger an increase in proPO transcription, which could then be countered by inhibition of mRNA translation, thus explaining the absence of proPO enzymatic activity. Overall, these results suggest that ant queens, which only mate on a single occasion early in adult life, continue to supress non-self generalist immune recognition in their spermatheca after insemination; this contrasts with the apparent melanization of the bumblebee queen spermathecae after mating (Greeff and Schmid-Hempel, 2008). However, this could possibly be explained by bumblebee queens only using a subset of the sperm stored in their spermatheca to complete their short, oneyear reproductive cycle (Röseler, 1973; Baer and Schmid-Hempel, 2000), so they do not face as strong selective pressure for sperm preservation as long-lived ant queens do.…”

Section: Long-term Sperm Storagementioning

confidence: 86%

“…Melanization in female reproductive organs can be triggered by mating in both non-social and social insects. In Drosophila, copulation sometimes induces the formation of a dark reaction mass in the bursa copulatrix (also called the uterus) (Patterson, 1946) that seems to be related to melanogenesis (Asada and Kitagawa, 1988a,b;Asada and Fukumitsu, 1990), and the spermathecae of bumblebee queens have been observed to become melanized after mating (Greeff and Schmid-Hempel, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential immune-gene expression in sperm storage organs of leaf-cutting ants

Chérasse

Baer

Schiøtt

et al. 2018

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Leaf-cutting ant queens mate with multiple males during a single nuptial flight and store sperm for up to two decades. During mating, males transfer sperm from their accessory testes to the queen bursa copulatrix from where it enters the spermatheca, an insect sperm storage organ that has become highly specialized in long-lived ant queens who never re-mate later in life. Long-term storage without the possibility to obtain new sperm creates an immune defence dilemma, because recognition of non-self cells eliminates infections but may also target irreplaceable sperm and reduce lifetime reproductive success. We therefore hypothesized that non-specific immune responses, like pathogen melanization, should be silenced in the spermatheca, because they rely on general non-self recognition, and that specific responses such as antimicrobial peptides are activated instead as they specifically target pathogenic bacteria and/or fungi. The maintenance of uninfected sperm cells by males before mating is not constrained by non-self recognition, meaning immune regulation might be more liberal in male reproductive organs. To test this hypothesis, we measured gene expression of two antimicrobial peptides, abaecin and defensin, and prophenoloxidase, an important enzyme of the melanization pathway, in male accessory glands and testes and in queen bursae copulatrix and spermathecae of and leaf-cutting ants. As expected, prophenoloxidase expression was low in reproductive organs that sustain prolonged contact with sperm, whereas antimicrobial peptides showed average to high expression, indicating that leaf-cutting ants invest in specific rather than generalist immune defences for pathogen protection in organs that store sperm.

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Sperm reduces female longevity and increases melanization of the spermatheca in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris L.

Cited by 25 publications

References 41 publications

Male remating and its influences on queen colony foundation success in the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris

Male remating and its influences on queen colony foundation success in the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris

Experimental Evolution Exposes Female and Male Responses to Sexual Selection and Conflict in Tribolium Castaneum

Differential immune-gene expression in sperm storage organs of leaf-cutting ants

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