REPRODUCTIVE FUNCTION AND THE COST OF MATING IN DROSOPHILA FEMALES

In Drosophila females, as well as in many other animals, mating reduces their lifespan, which is thought to be a "cost of mating". The reduction of longevity is known to be caused by substances produced in the male accessory glands and transmitted to females during copulation. It is concei...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGenes & Genetic Systems Vol. 75; no. 6; p. 370
Main Authors UEYAMA Morio, FUYAMA Yoshiaki
Format Journal Article
LanguageJapanese
Published The Genetics Society of Japan 2000
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Summary:In Drosophila females, as well as in many other animals, mating reduces their lifespan, which is thought to be a "cost of mating". The reduction of longevity is known to be caused by substances produced in the male accessory glands and transmitted to females during copulation. It is conceivable that females have some counteractive means against such manipulations by males. Reproductive activities characteristic of mated females, such as accelerated oogenesis, ovulation, and oviposition, may be involved in the putative defense mechanism of female. To explore this possibility, we examined the effect of mating on the lifespan with females that were defective in oogenesis. Three different mutant alleles of otu (ovarian tumors), otu^6 , otu^1 and otu^7 , were tested, which are defective at various stages of oogenesis. For all the otu alleles, mated homozygous females showed a dramatically decreased lifespan as compared with unmated females. These results suggest that oogenesis can somehow mitigate the toxic effects of mating.
ISSN:1341-7568