Effect of Male Diet on Accessory Gland Protein and Sperm Traits in D.melanogaster

The quality and quantity of nutrients present in the food consumed by organisms have a strong influence on reproductive fitness. The diet of individuals is apparently a key factor in reproduction with effects on their sexual performance and progeny production. Variation in reproductive success of individuals in a population depends on the quality and quantity of nutrients available and also consumed by the individuals. The investigations on the effects of diet on life events in insects include mate choice, mating incidence, activity levels, the quantity of seminal fluid and /or accessory gland proteins produced and sperm production. Here we investigate the effect of male nutrition on the accessory gland and quantity of sperms transferred to the mated female during copulation to understand its effect of male reproductive success in Drosophila melanogaster. We raised larvae on either the protein-rich diet or carbohydrate-rich diet. We found that flies consuming protein-rich diet had numerous small main cells in their accessory gland and formed a larger amount of accessory gland protein, whereas males fed on the carbohydrate-rich diet had fewer large main cells in their accessory gland and produced a significantly small amount of accessory gland proteins. Further males reared on the protein-rich diet had copulated longer and transferred a larger amount of accessory gland protein and sperms to mated females than those males which fed with wheat cream agar media or male fed on the carbohydrate-rich diet.