Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Animal Biology (M092), The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia.
J Evol Biol. 2011 Jan;24(1):132-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02158.x. Epub 2010 Nov 2.
Female fitness has traditionally been thought to be maximized with one or a few matings. More recent research suggests that polyandry, mating with two or more males, can generate an increase in the viability of offspring females produce. However, the mechanism(s) underlying enhanced offspring viability remain largely unknown. The Australian field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus has proved a useful model for examining the evolutionary significance of polyandry. Embryo viability appears to be associated with a male's investment in accessory gland tissue, implicating a role for seminal fluid. Here, I used amino acids labelled with different radio isotopes to identify proteins manufactured by males and females before they engaged in reproduction. Males incorporated 95% of the radiolabel into the testes, accessory glands and the ejaculate that was transferred to the female at mating. Male ejaculate compounds were incorporated predominantly into the female's somatic tissue. Relatively more female compounds were incorporated into the ovaries and into laid eggs than ejaculate compounds, and relatively fewer female compounds were sequestered in the somatic tissue than ejaculate compounds. The patterns observed suggest that while ejaculate compounds may be incorporated directly into eggs, they are likely to have a larger effect on maternal allocation to offspring.
女性生育能力传统上被认为在一次或几次交配中达到最大化。最近的研究表明，与两个或更多雄性交配的多配偶制可以提高雌性后代的存活率。然而，增强后代存活率的机制在很大程度上仍不清楚。澳大利亚蟋蟀 Teleogryllus oceanicus 已被证明是研究多配偶制进化意义的有用模型。胚胎存活率似乎与雄性在附属腺组织上的投资有关，这暗示了精液的作用。在这里，我使用带有不同放射性同位素的氨基酸来鉴定雄性和雌性在繁殖前制造的蛋白质。雄性将 95%的放射性标记物纳入睾丸、附属腺和在交配时转移给雌性的精液中。雄性精液化合物主要被纳入雌性的体细胞组织。与精液化合物相比，相对更多的雌性化合物被纳入卵巢和产卵中，而与精液化合物相比，相对较少的雌性化合物被隔离在体细胞组织中。观察到的模式表明，虽然精液化合物可能直接被纳入卵子，但它们可能对母体对子代的分配有更大的影响。
