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A cost of reproduction: Oxidative stress susceptibility in Drosophila melanogaster
Abstract
A cost of reproduction is the trade-off between reproduction and survival. The studies presented in this dissertation investigated the mechanisms underling the cost of reproduction using Drosophila melanogaster in terms of phenotypic manipulations, genetic correlations and correlated response to selection. Mating and dietary yeast supplementation that stimulated egg production are associated with increased oxidative stress susceptibility, suggesting that oxidative stress susceptibility is a cost of reproduction. Mating also resulted in significantly increased oxidative damage to proteins. A quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis was conducted to test the correlation between oxidative stress survival and early fecundity using a set of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) from a natural population of D. melanogaster. There was no evidence for opposing effects on oxidative stress survival and early fecundity. To study the effect of sterility on oxidative stress survival, we performed a second QTL analysis using sterile hybrids derived from crosses between RIL and female-sterile mutation. Compared to the first QTL study, one common QTL affected oxidative stress survival in a negative manner. And two QTLs had a negative effect on RIL female oxidative stress survival that was not present in sterile hybrid females. These regions might be candidates for costs of reproduction in terms of oxidative stress susceptibility as a function of egg production. In one line of D. melanogaster selected for oxidative stress resistance, virgin females and males were more resistant to oxidative stress than flies from control lines, accompanied by a decrease in early-age fecundity and an increase in late-age fecundity in selected females. Two-dimensional PAGE of female proteins suggested that the difference in protein expression may be an indirect correlated response to selection for oxidative stress resistance. The results from phenotypic manipulation experiments and selection for oxidative stress resistance support the hypothesis that oxidative damage and oxidative stress susceptibility are interrelated cost of reproduction.
Subject Area
Genetics
Recommended Citation
Wang, Yue, "A cost of reproduction: Oxidative stress susceptibility in Drosophila melanogaster" (2005). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3194128.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3194128