Mitochondrial Respiration in Drosophila Ovaries after a Full Cycle of Oogenesis under Simulated Microgravity.

Irina V Ogneva,Maria A Usik

doi:10.3390/cimb43010015

Abstract

Studies of the function of the female reproductive system in zero gravity are urgent for the future exploration of deep space. Female reproductive cells, oocytes, are rich in mitochondria, which allow oocytes to produce embryos. The rate of cellular respiration was determined to assess the functional state of the mitochondrial apparatus in Drosophila melanogaster ovaries in which the full cycle of oogenesis took place under simulated microgravity. Since cellular respiration depends on the state of the cytoskeleton, the contents of the main cytoskeletal proteins were determined by Western blotting. To modulate the structure of the cytoskeleton, essential phospholipids were administered per os at a dosage of 500 mg/kg in medium. The results of this study show that after a full cycle of oogenesis under simulated microgravity, the rate of cellular respiration in the fruit fly ovaries increases, apparently due to complex II of the respiratory chain. At the same time, we did not find any changes in the area of oocytes or in the content of proteins in the respiratory chain. However, changes were found in the relative contents of proteins of the actin cytoskeleton. There were no changes of essential phospholipids and no increase in the rate of cellular respiration of the ovaries after exposure to simulated microgravity. However, in the control, the administration of essential phospholipids led to a decrease in the efficiency of oxygen consumption in the flies’ ovaries due to complexes IV–V.

Highlights

Realization of reproductive function after, or even during, a long space flight is one of the prerequisites for maintaining the human species during the exploration of deep space
Under space flight conditions in a low-earth orbit (LEO), where microgravity is the main factor and in experiments simulating the conditions of weightlessness on Earth, it has been convincingly shown that a number of changes can be observed at the level of germ cells and organs
The cellular respiration rate of permeabilized Drosophila melanogaster ovaries (V0) that had undergone a full cycle of oogenesis under simulated microgravity was

Summary

Introduction

Realization of reproductive function after, or even during, a long space flight is one of the prerequisites for maintaining the human species during the exploration of deep space. Among a number of negative factors of space flight beyond leaving the. Under space flight conditions in a low-earth orbit (LEO), where microgravity is the main factor and in experiments simulating the conditions of weightlessness on Earth, it has been convincingly shown that a number of changes can be observed at the level of germ cells and organs. In space flight, the number of mature spermatozoa in the epididymis of the testes decreases and in model experiments, for example, with antiorthostatic suspension, this decrease is more significant [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Changes in the contents of various cytoskeletal proteins and the expression of the corresponding genes have been observed [7,8]

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