Objective
The hymenopteran eusocial insects (ants, bees, wasps) not only have impressive colony lives, but also spectacular adaptations for the years-long storage of live sperm. Where human medicine requires cryotechnology to do this, the queens of honeybees and ants produce glandular secretions to maintain sperm at ambient temperatures inside a specialized storage organ (spermatheca). During my PhD, I pioneered the study of male accessory glands and their effects on sperm viability during insemination, using mostly leafcutter ants. I discovered that ejaculate competition has evolved in ants and bees with multiply mated queens, but is terminated by ant queens after sperm storage. This made it clear that female secretions play key roles and that proteomic approaches are needed to understand their function. I plan to use the honeybee Apis mellifera to study the effects of female glandular secretions in situations of potential sexual conflict. These arise when queens are inseminated by multiple males and have an interest in selecting the most viable sperm fraction for permanent storage and later use when fertilizing eggs. I will combine evolutionary biology with proteomics technology to characterize and identify the proteome of secretions that newly mated queens add to ejaculates while sperm is transferred, maintained in the reproductive tract for up to several days, and finally stored for years. I will also study the specific effects of oviduct- and spermatheca secretions on ejaculate physiology and sperm viability. Finally, I will combine biochemical and experimental approaches to clarify the function of specific protein components within these female secretions. My research will provide novel answers to general evolutionary questions about the expression and regulation of sexual conflict. It will develop novel technology with considerable potential for general studies of sperm viability and for applied honeybee breeding studies at times when many commercial stocks are declini
Fields of science
Call for proposal
FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IOF
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Funding Scheme
MC-IOF - International Outgoing Fellowships (IOF)Coordinator
1165 Kobenhavn
Denmark