Figure 1.

Out of 26 candidate genes tested, ubiquitous or tissue-specific knockdown of eight genes affects sperm competition. (A) Overview of the candidate genes from Chow et al. (2013) that were tested using RNAi knockdown. (B–L) Sperm competition was measured as the proportion of offspring sired by the first male (P1) over the course of 8 days. For all genes, controls were generated by crossing the appropriate background strain (attP or w¹¹¹⁸) to the respective GAL4 driver line. Each dot represents overall P1 in vials 2–5 for an individual control or knockdown female. Significant differences in P1 between control and knockdown females were determined using linear models. Error bars represent the SEM. (B–F) Changes in P1 mediated by ubiquitous knockdown (Tubulin-GAL4/TM3, Sb). (G–J) Changes in P1 mediated by pan-neuronal knockdown (nSyb-GAL4). (K and L) Changes in P1 mediated by Tdc2⁺ neuron- or ppk⁺ neuron-specific knockdown. P1, proportion of offspring sired by the first male to mate; RNAi, RNA interference; VDRC, Vienna Drosophila Research Center. * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001.