4.7 Article

Protein-Level Interactions as Mediators of Sexual Conflict in Ants

期刊

MOLECULAR & CELLULAR PROTEOMICS
卷 18, 期 3, 页码 S34-S45

出版社

AMER SOC BIOCHEMISTRY MOLECULAR BIOLOGY INC
DOI: 10.1074/mcp.RA118.000941

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资金

  1. Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship from the Australian Research Council
  2. Australian Research Council (ARC)
  3. University of California Riverside
  4. Danish National Research Foundation [DNRF57]
  5. Advanced ERC grant
  6. Marie-Curie International Outgoing Fellowship

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All social insects with obligate reproductive division of labor evolved from strictly monogamous ancestors, but multiple queen-mating (polyandry) arose de novo in several evolutionarily derived lineages. Polyandrous ant queens are inseminated soon after hatching and store sperm mixtures for a potential reproductive life of decades. However, they cannot re-mate later in life and are thus expected to control the loss of viable sperm because their lifetime reproductive success is ultimately sperm limited. In the leaf-cutting ant Atta colombica, the survival of newly inseminated sperm is known to be compromised by seminal fluid of rival males and to be protected by secretions of the queen sperm storage organ (spermatheca). Here we investigate the main protein-level interactions that appear to mediate sperm competition dynamics and sperm preservation. We conducted an artificial insemination experiment and DIGE-based proteomics to identify proteomic changes when seminal fluid is exposed to spermathecal fluid followed by a mass spectrometry analysis of both secretions that allowed us to identify the sex-specific origins of the proteins that had changed in abundance. We found that spermathecal fluid targets only seven (2%) of the identified seminal fluid proteins for degradation, including two proteolytic serine proteases, a SERPIN inhibitor, and a semen-liquefying acid phosphatase. In vitro and in vivo experiments provided further confirmation that these proteins are key molecules mediating sexual conflict over sperm competition and viability preservation during sperm storage. In vitro exposure to spermathecal fluid reduced the capacity of seminal fluid to compromise survival of rival sperm in a matter of hours and biochemical inhibition of these seminal fluid proteins largely eliminated that adverse effect. Our findings indicate that A. colombica queens are in control of sperm competition and sperm storage, a capacity that has not been documented in other animals but is predicted to have independently evolved in other polyandrous social insects.

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