Seminal fluid protein divergence among populations exhibiting postmating prezygotic reproductive isolation

Abstract

Despite holding a central role for fertilisation success, reproductive traits often show elevated rates of evolution and diversification. The rapid evolution of seminal fluid proteins (Sfps) within populations is predicted to cause mis-signalling between the male ejaculate and female reproductive tract between populations resulting in postmating prezygotic (PMPZ) isolation. Crosses between populations of Drosophila montana show PMPZ isolation in the form of reduced fertilisation success in both noncompetitive and competitive contexts. Here we test whether male ejaculate proteins deriving from either the accessory glands or the ejaculatory bulb differ between populations using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. We find more than 150 differentially abundant proteins between populations which may contribute to PMPZ isolation. These proteins include a number of proteases and peptidases, and several orthologs of D. melanogaster Sfps, all known to mediate fertilisation success and which mimic PMPZ isolation phenotypes. Males of one population typically produced greater quantities of Sfps and the strongest PMPZ isolation occurs in this direction. The accessory glands and ejaculatory bulb have different functions and the ejaculatory bulb contributes more to population differences than the accessory glands. Proteins with a secretory signal, but not Sfps, evolve faster than non-secretory proteins although the conservative criteria used to define Sfps may have impaired the ability to identify rapidly evolving proteins. We take advantage of quantitative proteomics data from three Drosophila species to determine shared and unique functional enrichments of Sfps that could be subject to selection between taxa and subsequently mediate PMPZ isolation. Our study provides the first high throughput quantitative proteomic evidence showing divergence of reproductive proteins implicated in the emergence of PMPZ isolation between populations. IMPACT SUMMARYIdentifying traits that prevent successful interbreeding is key to understanding early stages of the formation of new species, or speciation. Reproductive isolation arising prior to and during fertilisation frequently involves differences in how the sexes interact. In internally fertilising taxa, such interactions are mediated between the female reproductive tract where fertilisation occurs and the receipt of the ejaculate necessary for fertilisation. Because ejaculate proteins are at least partially responsible for these interactions, differences in male ejaculate protein composition could negatively impact fertilisation success, generating reproductive isolation. While the biological classes of ejaculate proteins are shared across all animal taxa, proteins that are secreted by males tend to show rapid evolution in gene expression and genetic sequence. Thus, reproductive proteins are suggested as prime targets facilitating reproductive isolation that arises after mating but before fertilisation (PostMating PreZygotic or PMPZ isolation). Most research on PMPZ isolation has focussed on differences between species for which it is not possible to determine the causative and temporal order of early speciation processes. Here, we test whether populations that exhibit few genetic differences but show strong PMPZ isolation also exhibit variation in ejaculate composition using quantitative high throughput proteomic analyses. We find a number of proteins are differentially abundant between populations including several known to impact fertilisation success in other species. We show that secreted proteins are evolving at an elevated rate, implicating their potential role in PMPZ isolation. We test divergence in ejaculate composition between species, finding a core set of functions that were conserved across species which last shared a common ancestor more than 40 million years ago along with species-specific investment. This work highlights the divergent evolution of reproductive proteins which may contribute to barriers between populations within a species early during speciation, extendable to similar analyses in other taxa in the future.