Gene is found in fruit flies to affect fertility of rival males

Pheromones are chemicals cues used for communication for many animals. They are a kind of chemical language guiding important information decisions between animals. Now scientists at the University of Hawai'i - Mānoa's (UHM) Pacific Biosciences Research Center (PBRC) have done a new research identifying a single gene in fruit flies that controls male pheromone production, male fertility and fertility of rival males unexpectedly.

Insects use a wide diversity of pheromone chemical signals to guide their behaviors. But we know little about how the diversity evolves.

"Our work reveals that one way new pheromones are produced is by hijacking genes which are used for other biological processes - in this case, male fertility," said Joanne Yew, assistant professor at PBRC and lead author of the study published today in Nature Communications. "The findings reveal a molecular mechanism by which novel traits evolve, a long-standing problem in evolutionary biology."

The gene is named bond. It uses genetic screening which identified genes in fruit flies that are involved in pheromone synthesis. Researchers used the technique to eliminate the function of other genes within the male reproductive organs one by one. Finally the scientists noted that the male flies in which bond expression was silenced were missing one of the major sex pheromones. The bone they discovered is a powerful gene that encodes an enzyme to make certain pheromones and components of sperm cell membranes, thus affecting behavior and fertility.

The mutant males produced very few offspring compared to normal flies.
One normal male was placed in the company of either mutant males or normal males to determine the influence of bond on social behaviors. A few days later the results showed that, in the absence of the normal chemical signals that signify potential rivals, males lower their sperm investment, which implies that males need a sense of competition to ensure reproductive success.

From the research we can know that fertility is a dynamic trait which can be influenced by social conditions and the perception of sensory signals. What's more, the perception of tastes and smells, that is, the sense that are used to detect pheromones, have great relevance with reproductive physiology and reproductive disorders.

These scientists will research further in this field in the future.

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