Dept. of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA.
Dept. of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA; East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
Insect Biochem Mol Biol. 2018 Nov;102:43-51. doi: 10.1016/j.ibmb.2018.09.004. Epub 2018 Sep 11.
Seminal fluid proteins elicit several post-mating physiological changes in mated Drosophila melanogaster females. Some of these changes persist for over a week after mating because the seminal protein that causes these changes, the Sex Peptide (SP), binds to sperm that are stored in the female reproductive tract. SP's sperm binding is mediated by a network of at least eight seminal proteins. We show here that some of these network proteins (CG1656, CG1652, CG9997 and Antares) bind to sperm within 2 h of mating, like SP. However, while SP remains bound to sperm at 4 days post-mating, none of the other network proteins are detectable at this time. We also observed that the same network proteins are detectable at 2 h post-mating in seminal receptacle tissue from which sperm have been removed, but are no longer detectable there by 4 days post-mating, suggesting short-term retention of these proteins in this female sperm storage organ. Our results suggest that these network proteins act transiently to facilitate the conditions for SP's binding to sperm, perhaps by modifying SP or the sperm surface, but are not part of a long-acting complex that stably attaches SP to sperm.
精液蛋白会引起交配后的黑腹果蝇雌蝇发生多种生理变化。这些变化中的一些会在交配后持续一周以上，因为引起这些变化的精液蛋白——性肽（SP）与储存在雌性生殖道内的精子结合。SP 的精子结合是由至少 8 种精液蛋白组成的网络介导的。我们在这里表明，这些网络蛋白中的一些（CG1656、CG1652、CG9997 和 Antares）在交配后 2 小时内与精子结合，就像 SP 一样。然而，尽管 SP 在交配后 4 天仍与精子结合，但此时检测不到其他网络蛋白。我们还观察到，在交配后 2 小时从去除精子的附腺组织中可以检测到相同的网络蛋白，但在交配后 4 天不再检测到，这表明这些蛋白在这个雌性精子储存器官中短期保留。我们的结果表明，这些网络蛋白可能通过修饰 SP 或精子表面，暂时起到促进 SP 与精子结合的条件的作用，但它们不是将 SP 稳定附着到精子上的长效复合物的一部分。
