Abstract
In this study, we reanalyzed available datasets of gene expression changes in female Drosophila head induced by mating. Mated females present metabolic phenotypic changes and display behavioral characteristics that are not observed in virgin females, such as repulsion to male sexual aggressiveness, fidelity to food spots selected for oviposition, and restriction to the colonization of new niches. We characterize gene networks that play a role in female brain plasticity after mating using AMINE, a novel algorithm to find dysregulated modules of interacting genes. The uncovered networks of altered genes revealed a strong specificity for each successive period of life span after mating in the female head, with little conservation between them. This finding highlights a temporal order of recruitment of waves of interconnected genes which are apparently transiently modified: the first wave disappears before the emergence of the second wave in a reversible manner and ends with few consolidated gene expression changes at day 20. This analysis might document an extended field of a programmatic control of female phenotypic traits by male seminal fluid.
Highlights
Phenotypic plasticity is associated with changes in gene expression and can be adaptive to fluctuating environmental conditions or nonadaptive independent of the context of natural selection pressure
We considered only the RNA-Seq lists of head tissues of virgin versus mated females aged 1, 4, and 20 d, which eliminates any possible fertilized egg interference/contamination that occurs with the full carcass or other tissues, such as the gut
Three genes were overexpressed in mated females (FBgn0030608/Lsd-2, FBgn0259937/Nop60B, and FBgn0032538/Vajk2), six were underexpressed (FBgn0260653/serp, FBgn0031089/aspr, FBgn0016120/ ATPsynD, FBgn0033485/RpLP0-like, FBgn0033661/CG13185, and FBgn0011824/CG4038) in mated females, and one gene was overexpressed at day 1 but underexpressed at day 4 (FBgn0039670/CG7567)
Summary
Phenotypic plasticity is associated with changes in gene expression and can be adaptive to fluctuating environmental conditions or nonadaptive independent of the context of natural selection pressure. Another report describes that some genes of the immune system was highly expressed after mating, in contrast with a severely diminished efficiency of the fly to fight infectious pathogens (Fedorka et al, 2007). These conclusions have been completed by another observation that presents a panel of modified genes in mated female, most of them involved in immune system (Lawniczak & Begun, 2004). All these elements argue in favor of complex gene networks under the control of seminal fluid that markedly change the female destiny
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
