Foquet Bert, Rapkin James, Sharma Manmohan D, Sadd Ben M, Sakaluk Scott K, Hunt John
Behavior, Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Section, School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois, USA.
Center for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Cornwall, UK.
J Evol Biol. 2023 Jan;36(1):183-194. doi: 10.1111/jeb.14114. Epub 2022 Nov 10.
Nuptial food gift provisioning by males to females at mating is a strategy in many insects that is thought to be shaped by sexual conflict or sexual selection, as it affords males access to a female's physiology. While males often attempt to use these gifts to influence female behaviour to their own advantage, females can evolve counter mechanisms. In decorated crickets, the male's nuptial gift comprises part of the spermatophore, the spermatophylax, the feeding on which deters the female from prematurely terminating sperm transfer. However, ingested compounds in the spermatophylax and attachment of the sperm-containing ampulla could further influence female physiology and behaviour. We investigated how mating per se and these two distinct routes of potential male-mediated manipulation influence the female transcriptomic response. We conducted an RNA sequencing experiment on gut and head tissues from females for whom nuptial food gift consumption and receipt of an ejaculation were independently manipulated. In the gut tissue, we found that females not permitted to feed during mating exhibited decreased overall gene expression, possibly caused by a reduced gut function, but this was countered by feeding on the spermatophylax or a sham gift. In the head tissue, we found only low numbers of differentially expressed genes, but a gene co-expression network analysis revealed that ampulla attachment and spermatophylax consumption independently induce distinct gene expression patterns. This study provides evidence that spermatophylax feeding alters the female post-mating transcriptomic response in decorated crickets, highlighting its potential to mediate sexual conflict in this system.
在许多昆虫中，雄性在交配时向雌性提供婚飞食物礼物是一种策略，这种策略被认为是由性冲突或性选择塑造的，因为它使雄性能够接触到雌性的生理机能。虽然雄性通常试图利用这些礼物来影响雌性的行为以使其自身受益，但雌性可以进化出对抗机制。在饰纹蟋蟀中，雄性的婚飞礼物包括精包的一部分，即精包叶，雌性食用精包叶会阻止其过早终止精子转移。然而，精包叶中摄入的化合物以及含精子壶腹的附着可能会进一步影响雌性的生理和行为。我们研究了交配本身以及这两种潜在雄性介导的操纵的不同途径如何影响雌性的转录组反应。我们对雌性的肠道和头部组织进行了RNA测序实验，这些雌性的婚飞食物礼物消耗和射精接收是独立操纵的。在肠道组织中，我们发现交配时不被允许进食的雌性总体基因表达下降，这可能是由于肠道功能降低导致的，但食用精包叶或假礼物可以抵消这种下降。在头部组织中，我们只发现了少量差异表达基因，但基因共表达网络分析表明，壶腹附着和精包叶消耗分别诱导了不同的基因表达模式。这项研究提供了证据，表明食用精包叶会改变饰纹蟋蟀雌性交配后的转录组反应，突出了其在该系统中介导性冲突的潜力。
