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First published online August 25, 2003

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An early role for the Drosophila melanogaster male seminal protein Acp36DE in female sperm storage

Margaret C. Bloch Qazi^* and Mariana F. Wolfner

Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA

View larger version (16K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. (A) Mean (±1 S.E.M.) sperm storage in seminal receptacles and spermathecae at time points ranging from 0.3 h to 2 h after the start of mating for females mated to Acp36DE1/CyO males (+Acp36DE; filled circles) and Acp36DE1/Df(2L)H20 males (-Acp36DE; open circles). Sample sizes are 11 for each mean except where indicated on the figure. (B) Sperm storage between 6 h and 72 h after the start of mating. Symbols are the same as above and N=11 for each point. We detected a smaller difference between the number of sperm stored in the absence of Acp36DE (relative to the control) than that reported by Neubaum and Wolfner (1999b). This discrepancy could be partially attributable to differing experimental procedures between the two studies but, in addition, modifiers affecting sperm storage may have acted to mitigate the effect(s) of the Acp36DE1 allele during stock maintenance. Since sperm storage is an important facet of female fertility, strong selection is expected to act on sperm storage ability.

View larger version (49K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. (A) Full-length (122 kDa) Acp36DE and its 68 kDa processing product in the seminal receptacles (top) or spermathecae (bottom) of 90 females at 0.33 h or 2 h after the start of mating to wild-type males or to males transferring seminal fluids but no sperm. A cross-reactive protein band at 75 kDa serves as a loading control. Results were similar in repeats of this experiment. (B) Full-length (122 kDa) and processed (68 kDa; Bertram et al., 1996) Acp36DE in the seminal receptacle and spermathecae of 90 females mated with wild-type males 0.17 h or 1 h after the start of mating.