Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 286, Issue 1904, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0531
Keywords
oxidative stress; superoxide dismutase; mitochondrial function; transgenic insect; condition-dependent traits
Categories
Funding
- AFRI Research Initiative Education and Workforce Development grant [2015-67012-22793, 2015-67012-25339]
- USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture [2017-33522-27068]
- German Research Foundation [SCHE 1833/1-1]
- USDA-NIFA-AFRI grant [2016-67013-25087]
- NSF-DEB [1639005]
- NSF-IOS [1257298]
- Florida Agricultural Experiment Station
- Charles Steinmetz Endowment for Emerging Applications in Entomology
- IAEA/FAO CRP in Dormancy Management to Enable Mass-rearing and Increase Efficacy of Sterile Insects and Natural Enemies
- Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1639005] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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In many species, courtship displays are reliable signals of male quality, and current hypotheses suggest that these displays allow females to choose males with high cellular function. Environmental stressors generate excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) that impair cellular function, and thus antioxidant pathways that remove ROS are probably critical for preserving complex sexual behaviours. Here, we test the hypothesis that enhanced antioxidant activity in mitochondria preserves mating performance following oxidative stress. Using a transgenic approach, we directly manipulated mitochondrial antioxidant activity in the Caribbean fruit fly, Anastrepha suspensa, a lek-mating species with elaborate sexual displays and intense sexual selection that is also a model for sterile insect technique programmes. We generated seven transgenic lines that overexpress mitochondrial superoxide dismutase (MnSOD). Radiation is a severe oxidative stressor used to induce sterility for sterile insect programmes. After radiation treatment, two lines with intermediate MnSOD overexpression showed enhanced mating performance relative to wild-type males. These improvements in mating corresponded with reduced oxidative damage to lipids, demonstrating that MnSOD overexpression protects flies from oxidative stress at the cellular level. For lines with improved mating performance, overexpression also preserved locomotor activity, as indicated by a laboratory climbing assay. Our results show a clear link between oxidative stress, antioxidant capacity and male performance. Our work has implications for fundamentally understanding the role of antioxidants in sexual selection, and shows promise for using transgenic approaches to enhance the field performance of insects released for area-wide pest management strategies and improving performance of biological control agents in general.
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