Sexual Selection and Reproductive Strategies in Drosophila
Summary
In Drosophila, sexual selection shapes an array of male and female reproductive strategies that influence mating success, fertilisation efficiency and subsequent offspring fitness. Males deploy complex courtship displays, acoustic signals and chemical cues to secure copulations, while females exhibit choosiness based on male phenotypic traits and post-mating chemical signals. Once mating occurs, ejaculate components such as sperm and seminal fluid proteins (SFPs) interact with female physiology, inducing changes in receptivity, oviposition rates and sperm storage. Variation in sperm quantity and quality, ejaculate composition and female sperm-storage organs generates intense sperm competition among males and cryptic female choice that together drive rapid evolution of reproductive traits. The integration of behavioural assays, proteomic analyses and genetic manipulation has revealed how environmental factors, developmental history and intra- and intersexual interactions modulate reproductive investments and trade-offs. This body of work not only illuminates the mechanisms by which selection operates at molecular, cellular and organismal levels, but also provides a tractable system to explore fundamental principles of sexual conflict, cooperative interactions and the co-evolution of mating strategies.
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Sexual Selection and Reproductive Strategies in Drosophila publication trend
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Technical terms
Sexual selection: Differential reproductive success arising from competition for mates and mate choice.
Sperm competition: Rivalry among sperm from different males to fertilise the same set of ova.
Seminal fluid proteins (SFPs): Bioactive molecules in the male ejaculate that modulate female physiology and reproductive behaviour.
Post-mating response (PMR): Physiological and behavioural changes in females triggered by mating and transfer of male factors.
Ejaculate compositional plasticity: Variation in the relative allocation of sperm and seminal fluid components in response to social or environmental cues.
References
- Divergent allocation of sperm and the seminal proteome along a competition gradient in Drosophila melanogaster. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2019).
- Proteomics Reveals Novel Drosophila Seminal Fluid Proteins Transferred at Mating. PLOS Biology (2008).
- Evolutionary Rate Covariation Identifies New Members of a Protein Network Required for Drosophila melanogaster Female Post-Mating Responses. PLOS Genetics (2014).
- Developmental environment mediates male seminal protein investment in Drosophila melanogaster. Functional Ecology (2015).
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