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. 2020 Dec;33(12):1783-1794.
doi: 10.1111/jeb.13717. Epub 2020 Oct 25.

Ovarian fluid proteome variation associates with sperm swimming speed in an externally fertilizing fish

Sheri L Johnson  1 , Kirill Borziak  2 , Torsten Kleffmann  3 , Patrice Rosengrave  4   5 , Steve Dorus  2 , Neil J Gemmell  4
Affiliations

Ovarian fluid proteome variation associates with sperm swimming speed in an externally fertilizing fish

Sheri L Johnson et al. J Evol Biol. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Sperm velocity is a key trait that predicts the outcome of sperm competition. By promoting or impeding sperm velocity, females can control fertilization via postcopulatory cryptic female choice. In Chinook salmon, ovarian fluid (OF), which surrounds the ova, mediates sperm velocity according to male and female identity, biasing the outcome of sperm competition towards males with faster sperm. Past investigations have revealed proteome variation in OF, but the specific components of OF that differentially mediate sperm velocity have yet to be characterized. Here we use quantitative proteomics to investigate whether OF protein composition explains variation in sperm velocity and fertilization success. We found that OF proteomes from six females robustly clustered into two groups and that these groups are distinguished by the abundance of a restricted set of proteins significantly associated with sperm velocity. Exposure of sperm to OF from females in group I had faster sperm compared to sperm exposed to the OF of group II females. Overall, OF proteins that distinguished between these groups were enriched for vitellogenin and calcium ion interactions. Our findings suggest that these proteins may form the functional basis for cryptic female choice via the biochemical and physiological mediation of sperm velocity.

Keywords: cryptic female choice; fertility; oocyte; sexual selection; sperm velocity.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Ovarian fluid proteome variation analyses. (a) Hierarchical clustering analysis of OF proteomes using the Euclidean distance approach. Unbiased p-values (red; left) and bootstrap confidence (green; right) are indicated. (b) Whisker plot comparison of average path velocity (VAP) distributions of sperm exposed to OF fluid from the groups of females identified by hierarchical clustering above. (c) Mean ± standard error of VAP of the 5 males that were tested in at least 2 females in each OF cluster group. (d) Principal component (PC) analysis of OF proteomes. Protein abundances from all OF proteome were significantly positively correlated with PC1. Group I OF proteomes were significantly positively correlated, and group II OF proteomes were significantly negatively correlated with PC2, respectively
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