In many species, females store sperm between copulation and egg fertilization, but the consequences of sperm storage and patterns of sperm use for female life history and reproductive success have not been investigated in great detail. In hymenopteran insect societies (ants, bees, wasps), reproduction is usually monopolized by one or relatively few queens, who mate only during a brief period early in life and store sperm for later use. The queens of some ants are particularly long-lived and have the potential to produce millions of offspring during their life. To do so, queens store many sperm cells, and this sperm must remain viable throughout the years of storage. Queens should also be under strong selection to use stored sperm prudently when fertilizing eggs. We used the leaf-cutter ant Atta colombica to investigate the dynamics of sperm use during egg fertilization. We show that queens are able to fertilize close to 100 per cent of the eggs and that the average sperm use per egg is very low, but increases with queen age. The robustness of stored sperm was found to decrease with years of storage, signifying that senescence affects sperm either directly or indirectly via the declining glandular secretions or deteriorating sperm-storage organs. We evaluate our findings with a heuristic model, which suggests that the average queen has sperm for almost 9 years of normal colony development. We discuss the extent to which leaf-cutter ant queens have been able to optimize their sperm expenditure and infer that our observed averages of sperm number, sperm robustness and sperm use are consistent with sperm depletion being a significant cause of mortality of mature colonies of Atta leaf-cutter ants.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2825782 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2009.1184 | DOI Listing |
J Inflamm Res
December 2024
Tianjin Central Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology/Nankai University Affiliated Maternity Hospital, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Human Development and Reproductive Regulation, Tianjin, 300100, People's Republic of China.
Purpose: To investigate the follicle microenvironments of women with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI), with normal ovarian reserve function, and who are older (age >40 years) and to identify potential therapeutic targets.
Patients And Methods: In total, 9 women who underwent in vitro fertilization(IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection(ICSI) were included in this study. The first punctured follicle of each patient was used.
Insects copulate multiple times not only with different mates but also with the same mate, which is called repeated copulation. It occurs as a repeated alternation between copulation and mate-guarding, leading to the prolonged physical attachment between males and females. Particularly, in species where males forcefully grasp females, attempt to mate without courtship and exhibit repeated copulations, male and female morphological traits are expected to be associated with mating characteristics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Reprod Health
December 2024
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Fribourg University Hospital, Fribourg, Switzerland.
Adenomyosis is a commonly encountered pathology in women of reproductive age and frequently coexists with infertility. The effect of adenomyosis on fertility, particularly on fertilisation and intracytoplasmic sperm injection outcomes, is not well understood. Various pretreatment modalities have been used to improve pregnancy rates and live birth outcomes; however, because of a lack of high-quality evidence, there is no clear consensus on the best pretreatment option.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCureus
November 2024
Medical Oncology, Parkview Health, Fort Wayne, USA.
We present a multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of a neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase type 3 (NTRK3) soft tissue sarcoma (STS), arising from the occipitalis muscle. NTRK3 is a mutation only recently described in STS using next-generation sequencing and is rarely implicated in STS.Currently, there is limited literature to guide care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Biomed Res
November 2024
Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
Background: Lithium (Li) is widely used in the treatment of bipolar disorder, but it may lead to toxicity in the reproductive system. Considering the harmful effect of Li consumption on fertility and the positive effect of magnesium sulfate (MgSo) and moderate-intensity training (MIT) on improving the quality of men's sperm, the current research was conducted to determine the impact of MIT and MgSo on infertility caused by Li.
Materials And Methods: Seventy-two male rats were divided into 12 groups, control, Li10 mg/kg/day/ip, MgSo 80 mg/kg/day/ip; MIT; Li40 mg/kg/day/ip; Li10+MgSo; Li10+MIT; Li10+MgSo+MIT; Li40+MgSo; Li40+MIT; Li40+MgSo+MIT.
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!