Seminal fluid compromises visual perception in honeybee queens reducing their survival during additional mating flights.

Queens of social insects make all mate-choice decisions on a single day, except in honeybees whose queens can conduct mating flights for several days even when already inseminated by a number of drones. Honeybees therefore appear to have a unique, evolutionarily derived form of sexual conflict: a queen's decision to pursue risky additional mating flights is driven by later-life fitness gains from genetically more diverse worker-offspring but reduces paternity shares of the drones she already mated with. We used artificial insemination, RNA-sequencing and electroretinography to show that seminal fluid induces a decline in queen vision by perturbing the phototransduction pathway within 24-48 hr.

Protein-Level Interactions as Mediators of Sexual Conflict in Ants.

All social insects with obligate reproductive division of labor evolved from strictly monogamous ancestors, but multiple queen-mating (polyandry) arose , in several evolutionarily derived lineages. Polyandrous ant queens are inseminated soon after hatching and store sperm mixtures for a potential reproductive life of decades. However, they cannot re-mate later in life and are thus expected to control the loss of viable sperm because their lifetime reproductive success is ultimately sperm limited.

Sperm storage by males causes changes in sperm phenotype and influences the reproductive fitness of males and their sons.

Recent studies suggest that environmentally induced effects on sperm phenotype can influence offspring phenotype beyond the classic Mendelian inheritance mechanism. However, establishing whether such effects are conveyed purely through ejaculates, independently of maternal environmental effects, remains a significant challenge. Here, we assess whether environmentally induced effects on sperm phenotype affects male reproductive success and offspring fitness.

Flight behaviour of honey bee (Apis mellifera) workers is altered by initial infections of the fungal parasite Nosema apis.

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) host a wide range of parasites, some being known contributors towards dramatic colony losses as reported over recent years. To counter parasitic threats, honey bees possess effective immune systems. Because immune responses are predicted to cause substantial physiological costs for infected individuals, they are expected to trade off with other life history traits that ultimately affect the performance and fitness of the entire colony.

Differential proteomics reveals novel insights into Nosema-honey bee interactions.

Host manipulation is a common strategy by parasites to reduce host defense responses, enhance development, host exploitation, reproduction and, ultimately, transmission success. As these parasitic modifications can reduce host fitness, increased selection pressure may result in reciprocal adaptations of the host. Whereas the majority of studies on host manipulation have explored resistance against parasites (i.

Improvements to polar 2-D electrophoresis for proteomic applications.

Recently, we reported a new way of performing 2-DE, called P-dimensional electrophoresis (2-PE). In this approach, the second dimension is achieved in a radial gel which can accommodate up to six 7 cm long IPG strips simultaneously, improving reproducibility and throughput power in respect to 2-DE. Nevertheless, 2-PE was up to now limited to the use of only short strips because of technical difficulties.

Synthesis, spectroscopic, and photophysical characterization and photosensitizing activity toward prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells of porphyrin-magainin and -buforin conjugates.

Cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) are attractive tools to combat infectious diseases and to stem further development of antibiotic resistance. In an attempt to increase the efficiency of bacteria inactivation, we conjugated a PDT photosensitizer, cationic or neutral porphyrin, to a CAMP, buforin or magainin. The neutral and hydrophobic porphyrin, which is not photoactive per se against Gram-negative bacteria, efficiently photoinactivated Escherichia coli after conjugation to either buforin or magainin.

Pattern of inbreeding depression, condition dependence, and additive genetic variance in Trinidadian guppy ejaculate traits.

In polyandrous species, a male's reproductive success depends on his fertilization capability and traits enhancing competitive fertilization success will be under strong, directional selection. This leads to the prediction that these traits should show stronger condition dependence and larger genetic variance than other traits subject to weaker or stabilizing selection. While empirical evidence of condition dependence in postcopulatory traits is increasing, the comparison between sexually selected and 'control' traits is often based on untested assumption concerning the different strength of selection acting on these traits.

Synthesis, characterization, and photoinduced antibacterial activity of porphyrin-type photosensitizers conjugated to the antimicrobial peptide apidaecin 1b.

Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) is an emerging treatment for bacterial infections that is becoming increasingly more attractive because of its effectiveness against multi-antibiotic-resistant strains and unlikelihood of inducing bacterial resistance. Among the strategies to enhance the efficacy of PDT against Gram-negative bacteria, the binding to a cationic antimicrobial peptide offers the attractive prospect for improving both the water solubilty and the localization of the photoactive drug in bacteria. In this work we have compared a number of free and apidaecin-conjugated photosensitizers (PSs) differing in structure and charge.

Molecular targets of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy identified by a proteomic approach.

Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising tool to combat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. During PDT, bacteria are killed by reactive oxygen species generated by a visible light absorbing photosensitizer (PS). We used a classical proteomic approach that included two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry analysis, to identify some proteins of Staphylococcus aureus that are damaged during PDT with the cationic PS meso-tetra-4-N-methyl pyridyl porphine (T4).

Improved instrumentation for large-size two-dimensional protein maps.

Novel instrumentation for performing large-size (>25 cm) 2-D maps is reported here. To perform the first dimension, we developed a power supply that can deliver a voltage of up to 15,000 V and allows regulation of current (up to 200 μA) onto each individual focusing IPG strip. The IEF strip tray can accommodate up to 12 IPG strips and the electrodes slide on a ruler, thus permitting running strips of any length up to 45 cm.

Substitution of the arginine/leucine residues in apidaecin Ib with peptoid residues: effect on antimicrobial activity, cellular uptake, and proteolytic degradation.

Several aspects of the mechanism of action of Pro-rich antimicrobial peptides, together with their low toxicity in mammalian cells, make them good candidates for the development of new antibiotic agents. We investigated the effect induced in the insect antimicrobial peptide apidaecin Ib by the replacement of a single arginine/leucine residue with a N-substituted glycine. The resulting peptoid-peptide hybrids are more resistant to proteolysis and devoid of any significant cytotoxic activity, but moving the [NArg]residue from the N- to the C-terminal end of the molecule progressively reduces the antibacterial activity.

Porphyrin-apidaecin conjugate as a new broad spectrum antibacterial agent.

The conjugation of the cationic antimicrobial peptide, apidaecin Ib, to the anionic photosensitizer, 5(4'-carboxyphenyl)-10,15,20-triphenylporphyrin (cTPP), afforded a new antibacterial agent effective, under light activation, against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. At low concentrations (1.5-15 μM) the conjugate was able to reduce the survival of Escherichia coli cells by 3-4 log10, and most notably, it resulted photoactive also against hard-to-treat Pseudomonas aeruginosa, although at higher concentration (60 μM).

SDS-PAGE and two-dimensional maps in a radial gel format.

A novel method for performing 2-D map analysis is here reported, consisting in a modification of the second dimension run, which is performed not in a conventional square- or rectangular-size gel, but in a radial surface. This has the advantage of permitting resolution of closely adjacent bands, representing strings of isoforms of similar or identical mass but of closely spaced isoelectric points. When used in a mono-dimensional, SDS-PAGE format, this system allows the simultaneous running of 62 sample tracks.