Context-dependent expression of sperm quality in the fruitfly

Abstract

In most species, females mate multiply within a reproductive cycle, invoking post-copulatory selection on ejaculatory components. Much research has focused on disentangling the key traits important in deciding the outcomes of sperm competition and investigating patterns of covariance among these traits. Less attention has focused on the degree to which such patterns might be context-dependent. Here, we examine whether the expression of sperm viability-a widely used measure of sperm quality-and patterns of covariance between this trait and male reproductive morphologies, change across distinct age classes and across naturally occurring genotypes, when expressed in both heterozygotic (extreme outbred) and homozygotic (extreme inbred) states in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster. Older males, and heterozygous males, generally exhibited higher sperm viability. The male age effect seems at least partly explained by a positive association between sperm numbers and viability. First, old males possessed more stored sperm than young males, and second, sperm numbers and viability were also positively associated within each age class. Furthermore, we found a positive association between sperm viability and testis size, but only among heterozygous, old males. These results suggest that sperm quality is a labile trait, with expression levels that are context-dependent and shaped by multiple, potentially interacting, factors.