TY - JOUR
T1 - Female novelty and male status dynamically modulate ejaculate expenditure and seminal fluid proteome over successive matings in red junglefowl
AU - Alvarez-Fernandez, Aitor
AU - Borziak, Kirill
AU - McDonald, Grant C.
AU - Dorus, Steve
AU - Pizzari, Tommaso
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like thank Ellen Foley-Williams and Rosie Eccleston for assistance in the field, the Cambridge Proteomics Facility, including Mike Deery, Renata Feret and Kathryn Lilley for excellent proteomic support, computational support from Eric Sedore and Larne Pekowsky (supported by NSF award OAC-1541396/ACI-1541396) and the reviewers for their effort and constructive advice. This work was funded by a Warr-Goodman Graduate Scholarship from Lady Margaret Hall (Oxford) to AAF, NSF DEB award 1655840 and NIH NICHD 1R21HD088910-01A1 award to SD, and a LINK BBSRC grant BB/L009587/1 to TP and GCM and funding from Aviagen Ltd. to GCM.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Theory predicts that males will strategically invest in ejaculates according to the value of mating opportunities. While strategic sperm allocation has been studied extensively, little is known about concomitant changes in seminal fluid (SF) and its molecular composition, despite increasing evidence that SF proteins (SFPs) are fundamental in fertility and sperm competition. Here, we show that in male red junglefowl, Gallus gallus, along with changes in sperm numbers and SF investment, SF composition changed dynamically over successive matings with a first female, immediately followed by mating with a second, sexually novel female. The SF proteome exhibited a pattern of both protein depletion and enrichment over successive matings, including progressive increases in immunity and plasma proteins. Ejaculates allocated to the second female had distinct proteomic profiles, where depletion of many SFPs was compensated by increased investment in others. This response was partly modulated by male social status: when mating with the second, novel female, subdominants (but not dominants) preferentially invested in SFPs associated with sperm composition, which may reflect status-specific differences in mating rates, sperm maturation and sperm competition. Global proteomic SF analysis thus reveals that successive matings trigger rapid, dynamic SFP changes driven by a combination of depletion and strategic allocation.
AB - Theory predicts that males will strategically invest in ejaculates according to the value of mating opportunities. While strategic sperm allocation has been studied extensively, little is known about concomitant changes in seminal fluid (SF) and its molecular composition, despite increasing evidence that SF proteins (SFPs) are fundamental in fertility and sperm competition. Here, we show that in male red junglefowl, Gallus gallus, along with changes in sperm numbers and SF investment, SF composition changed dynamically over successive matings with a first female, immediately followed by mating with a second, sexually novel female. The SF proteome exhibited a pattern of both protein depletion and enrichment over successive matings, including progressive increases in immunity and plasma proteins. Ejaculates allocated to the second female had distinct proteomic profiles, where depletion of many SFPs was compensated by increased investment in others. This response was partly modulated by male social status: when mating with the second, novel female, subdominants (but not dominants) preferentially invested in SFPs associated with sperm composition, which may reflect status-specific differences in mating rates, sperm maturation and sperm competition. Global proteomic SF analysis thus reveals that successive matings trigger rapid, dynamic SFP changes driven by a combination of depletion and strategic allocation.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41598-019-41336-5
DO - 10.1038/s41598-019-41336-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 30971704
AN - SCOPUS:85064251510
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 9
JO - Scientific reports
JF - Scientific reports
IS - 1
M1 - 5852
ER -