Evolutionary history of sexual selection affects microRNA profiles in Drosophila sperm

Hotzy, Cosima, Fowler, Emily, Kiehl, Berrit, Francis, Roy, Mason, Janet, Moxon, Simon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4644-1816, Rostant, Wayne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3798-6251, Chapman, Tracey and Immler, Simone (2022) Evolutionary history of sexual selection affects microRNA profiles in Drosophila sperm. Evolution, 76 (2). pp. 310-319. ISSN 0014-3820

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Abstract

The presence of small RNAs in sperm is a relatively recent discovery and little is currently known about their importance and functions. Environmental changes including social conditions and dietary manipulations are known to affect the composition and expression of some small RNAs in sperm and may elicit a physiological stress response resulting in an associated change in gamete miRNA profiles. Here, we tested how microRNA profiles in sperm are affected by variation in both sexual selection and dietary regimes in Drosophila melanogaster selection lines. The selection lines were exposed to standard versus low yeast diet treatments and three different population sex ratios (male-biased, female-biased or equal sex) in a full-factorial design. After 38 generations of selection, all males were maintained on their selected diet and in a common garden male-only environment prior to sperm sampling. We performed transcriptome analyses on miRNAs in purified sperm samples. We found 11 differentially expressed miRNAs with the majority showing differences between male- and female-biased lines. Dietary treatment only had a significant effect on miRNA expression levels in interaction with sex ratio. Our findings suggest that long-term adaptation may affect miRNA profiles in sperm and that these may show varied interactions with short-term environmental changes.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding Information: This study was funded by an ERC Starting Grant (HapSelA‐336633), an HFSP collaborative grant (RGP0025/2015), and a Wallenberg Academy Fellowship to SI and by grants from BBSRC (BB/L003139/1) and NERC (NE/R000891/1) to TC.
Uncontrolled Keywords: ecology, evolution, behavior and systematics,genetics,agricultural and biological sciences(all) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100/1105
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 13 Dec 2021 08:30
Last Modified: 30 Nov 2024 01:39
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/82651
DOI: 10.1111/evo.14411

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