Male Accessory Gland Secretions: Modulators of Female Reproductive Physiology and Behavior

Abstract

Secretions of male accessory glands contain a variety of bioactive molecules. When transferred during mating, these molecules exert wide-ranging effects on female reproductive activity and they improve the male's chances of siring a significant proportion of the female's offspring. The accessory gland secretions may affect virtually all aspects of the female's reproductive activity. The secretions may render her unwilling or unable to remate for some time, facilitating sperm storage and ensuring that any eggs laid will be fertilized by that male's sperm. They may stimulate an increase in the number and rate of development of eggs and modulate ovulation and/or oviposition. Antimicrobial agents in the secretions ensure that the female reproductive tract is a hospitable environment during sperm transfer. In a few species the secretions include noxious chemicals. These are sequestered by developing eggs that are thereby protected from predators and pathogens when laid.

Subtle effect of Xenos vesparum (Xenidae, Strepsiptera) on the reproductive apparatus of its male host: Parasite or parasitoid?

“…obs.). As observed in other insects (Happ, 1992;Gillot, 1996;Gillott, 2003), also in Polistes the long storage of male sperm in the female spermatheca before egg fertilization could support a role for AG secretion as a key player involved in both male and female reproduction. In a previous experiment, P. dominula males with larger glands mated at a higher frequency than did males with smaller glands, regardless of their body size (Beani and Zaccaroni, 2015), and a similar relationship was recorded in Drosophila melanogaster (Bangham et al, 2002).…”

The cost of reproduction: the devil in the details

“…In various insect taxa, male proteins transferred to females during mating negatively affect female fi tness, thus constituting a cost of reproduction [43]. The proximate mechanisms underlying this cost of mating are best understood in D. melanogaster.…”

Multiple pathways mediate the sex-peptide-regulated switch in female Drosophila reproductive behaviours

“…To guarantee reproductive success, control of pregnancy-associated alterations in behaviours is believed to be mostly hard-wired into the brain. In many species including most insects, male-derived substances transferred during mating impact on female physiology and postmating behaviours probably by interfering with female control of reproduction [1][2][3]. How mating-induced alterations of reproductive physiology and behaviour are implemented into the female brain, however, is not well understood, but probably includes multi-level control involving stimulatory and inhibitory neuronal circuits adapting the postmating response to the physiological status of the female and to environmental conditions.…”