Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 2001 Jan 22;268(1463):175–180. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2000.1347

Male contributions to egg production: the role of accessory gland products and sperm in Drosophila melanogaster.

Y Heifetz 1, U Tram 1, M F Wolfner 1
PMCID: PMC1088588  PMID: 11209888

Abstract

Drosophila melanogatser seminal fluid components, accessory gland proteins (Acps) and sperm, induce females to deposit high numbers of fertilized eggs for about 11 days. This high and sustained level of egg deposition requires that oogenesis be stimulated to provide the necessary mature oocytes. To investigate the relative timing and contributions of Acps and sperm in the egg-production process, we examined the rates of oogenic progression and egg deposition in females mated to genetically altered males that have seminal fluid deficient in Acps and/or sperm, and subjected these data to path analysis. We found that Acps and sperm are complementary stimuli necessary for inducing high rates of oogenic progression and rapid egg deposition. While egg deposition and oogenic progression can be induced by Acps alone, both Acps and sperm are required for maximum stimulation of oogenic progression and egg deposition immediately after mating.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (152.8 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Boswell R. E., Mahowald A. P. tudor, a gene required for assembly of the germ plasm in Drosophila melanogaster. Cell. 1985 Nov;43(1):97–104. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90015-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bownes M., Rembold H. The titre of juvenile hormone during the pupal and adult stages of the life cycle of Drosophila melanogaster. Eur J Biochem. 1987 May 4;164(3):709–712. doi: 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1987.tb11184.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Harshman L. G., Loeb A. M., Johnson B. A. Ecdysteroid titers in mated and unmated Drosophila melanogaster females. J Insect Physiol. 1999 Jun;45(6):571–577. doi: 10.1016/s0022-1910(99)00038-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Heifetz Y., Lung O., Frongillo E. A., Jr, Wolfner M. F. The Drosophila seminal fluid protein Acp26Aa stimulates release of oocytes by the ovary. Curr Biol. 2000 Jan 27;10(2):99–102. doi: 10.1016/s0960-9822(00)00288-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. KING R. C., RUBINSON A. C., SMITH R. F. Oogenesis in adult Drosophila melanogaster. Growth. 1956 Jun;20(2):121–157. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. KING R. C., SANG J. H. Oögenesis in adult Drosophila melanogaster. VIII. The role of folic acid in oögenesis. Growth. 1959 Mar;23(1):37–53. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Kalb J. M., DiBenedetto A. J., Wolfner M. F. Probing the function of Drosophila melanogaster accessory glands by directed cell ablation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1993 Sep 1;90(17):8093–8097. doi: 10.1073/pnas.90.17.8093. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Kubli E. The sex-peptide. Bioessays. 1992 Nov;14(11):779–784. doi: 10.1002/bies.950141111. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Lung O., Wolfner M. F. Drosophila seminal fluid proteins enter the circulatory system of the mated female fly by crossing the posterior vaginal wall. Insect Biochem Mol Biol. 1999 Dec;29(12):1043–1052. doi: 10.1016/s0965-1748(99)00078-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Manning A. The control of sexual receptivity in female Drosophila. Anim Behav. 1967 Apr-Jul;15(2):239–250. doi: 10.1016/0003-3472(67)90006-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Moshitzky P., Fleischmann I., Chaimov N., Saudan P., Klauser S., Kubli E., Applebaum S. W. Sex-peptide activates juvenile hormone biosynthesis in the Drosophila melanogaster corpus allatum. Arch Insect Biochem Physiol. 1996;32(3-4):363–374. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6327(1996)32:3/4<363::AID-ARCH9>3.0.CO;2-T. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Neubaum D. M., Wolfner M. F. Mated Drosophila melanogaster females require a seminal fluid protein, Acp36DE, to store sperm efficiently. Genetics. 1999 Oct;153(2):845–857. doi: 10.1093/genetics/153.2.845. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Soller M., Bownes M., Kubli E. Control of oocyte maturation in sexually mature Drosophila females. Dev Biol. 1999 Apr 15;208(2):337–351. doi: 10.1006/dbio.1999.9210. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Soller M., Bownes M., Kubli E. Mating and sex peptide stimulate the accumulation of yolk in oocytes of Drosophila melanogaster. Eur J Biochem. 1997 Feb 1;243(3):732–738. doi: 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1997.00732.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Tram U., Wolfner M. F. Male seminal fluid proteins are essential for sperm storage in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics. 1999 Oct;153(2):837–844. doi: 10.1093/genetics/153.2.837. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Verheyen E., Cooley L. Looking at oogenesis. Methods Cell Biol. 1994;44:545–561. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Xue L., Noll M. Drosophila female sexual behavior induced by sterile males showing copulation complementation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2000 Mar 28;97(7):3272–3275. doi: 10.1073/pnas.060018897. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society are provided here courtesy of The Royal Society

RESOURCES