Sex peptide of Drosophila melanogaster males is a global regulator of 
reproductive processes in females

Gioti, A.; Wigby, S.; Wertheim, B.; Schuster, E.; Martinez, P.; Pennington, C. J.; Partridge, L.; Chapman, T.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.1634

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Add to Basket

Local TagsRelease HistoryDetailsSummary

Released

Journal Article

Sex peptide of Drosophila melanogaster males is a global regulator of reproductive processes in females

MPS-Authors

/persons/resource/persons129348

Partridge, L.
Department Partridge - Biological Mechanisms of Ageing, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Max Planck Society;

External Resource

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22977156
(Any fulltext)

Fulltext (restricted access)

There are currently no full texts shared for your IP range.

Fulltext (public)

There are no public fulltexts stored in PuRe

Supplementary Material (public)

There is no public supplementary material available

Citation

Gioti, A., Wigby, S., Wertheim, B., Schuster, E., Martinez, P., Pennington, C. J., et al. (2012). Sex peptide of Drosophila melanogaster males is a global regulator of reproductive processes in females. Proc Biol Sci, 279(1746), 4423-32. doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.1634.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000B-9D7F-7

Abstract

Seminal fluid proteins (Sfps) alter female behaviour and physiology and can mediate sexual conflict. In Drosophila melanogaster, a single Sfp, the sex peptide (SP), triggers remarkable post-mating responses in females, including altered fecundity, feeding, immunity and sexual receptivity. These effects can favour the evolutionary interests of males while generating costs in females. We tested the hypothesis that SP is an upstream master-regulator able to induce diverse phenotypes through efficient induction of widespread transcriptional changes in females. We profiled mRNA responses to SP in adult female abdomen (Abd) and head+thorax (HT) tissues using microarrays at 3 and 6 h following mating. SP elicited a rich, subtle signature of temporally and spatially controlled mRNAs. There were significant alterations to genes linked to egg development, early embryogenesis, immunity, nutrient sensing, behaviour and, unexpectedly, phototransduction. There was substantially more variation in the direction of differential expression across time points in the HT versus Abd. The results support the idea that SP is an important regulator of gene expression in females. The expression of many genes in one sex can therefore be under the influence of a regulator expressed in the other. This could influence the extent of sexual conflict both within and between loci.