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. 2017 Mar 30;12(3):e0173990.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173990. eCollection 2017.

Genetic variation for resistance to high temperature stress of mature sperm - a study in Drosophila

Jørgen Bundgaard  1 , J S F Barker  2
Affiliations

Genetic variation for resistance to high temperature stress of mature sperm - a study in Drosophila

Jørgen Bundgaard et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Genetic variation for resistance to heat stress has been found for a number of life-history components in Drosophila species. For male and female fertility (or sterility), stress resistance of the parents is confounded with stress resistance of the haploid gametes. Many genes are known to influence male fertility in Drosophila melanogaster. Some may carry temperature sensitive alleles that reduce fertility through effects on mature sperm when exposed to heat stress. In this study, sperm from each of 320 males were either not heat shocked (control) or exposed to a heat shock (36.9°C for 2 hours) either in the male testes or in the female reproductive tract. We did not detect any temperature sensitive sterility alleles. These results are relevant in relation to haploid gene expression and the findings of considerable amounts of mRNA in mature sperm, potentially important for sperm function and fertilization.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Diagrammatic representation of the experimental procedures.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Frequency distribution of the proportion of ++ progeny for each treatment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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