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- Title
A study of the transit amplification divisions during spermatogenesis in Oncopetus fasciatus to assess plasticity in sperm numbers or sperm viability under different diets.
- Authors
Duxbury, Ashley E.; Weathersby, Brandie; Sanchez, Zachary; Moore, Patricia J.
- Abstract
Oncopeltus fasciatus males fed the ancestral diet of milkweed seeds prioritize reproduction over lifespan as evidenced by higher rates of fertility and shorter lifespans than males from the same population fed the adapted diet of sunflower seeds. We examined the proximate mechanisms by which milkweed‐fed males maintained late‐life fertility. We tested the hypothesis that older milkweed‐fed males maintained fertility by producing more, higher quality sperm. Our results, that older males have more sperm, but their sperm do not have higher viability, are in general agreement with other recent studies on how nutrition affects male fertility in insects. We further examined the mechanisms by which sperm are produced by examining the progression of spermatogonial cells through the cell cycle during the transit amplification divisions. We demonstrated that diet affects the likelihood of a spermatocyst being in the S‐phase or M‐phase of the cell cycle. Given work in model systems, these results have implications for subtle effects on sperm quality either through replication stress or epigenetic markers. Thus, viability may not be the best marker for sperm quality and more work is called for on the mechanisms by which the germline and the production of sperm mediate the cost of reproduction. A fundamental tenant of life‐history theory is that there is a trade‐off between reproduction and somatic maintenance, but organisms can respond to variable environments by shifting the balance between these two critical activities. We have applied a developmental approach to attempt to examine the proximal mechanisms by which males vary life‐history allocation under variable diets. Our results show that in milkweed bugs, males invest in reproduction by investing in sperm numbers. However, examining spermatogenesis leads to further questions about investment in sperm quality.
- Subjects
ONCOPELTUS; INSECTS; SPERMATOGENESIS; DIET; INSECT reproduction; MILKWEEDS
- Publication
Ecology & Evolution (20457758), 2018, Vol 8, Issue 21, p10460
- ISSN
2045-7758
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/ece3.4511