Divergence of seminal fluid gene expression and function among natural snail populations

摘要: Seminal fluid proteins (SFPs) can trigger drastic changes in mating partners, mediating post-mating sexual selection and associated conflict. Also, cross-species comparisons have demonstrated that SFPs evolve rapidly hint drives their rapid evolution. In principle, this pattern should be detectable within species as among-population divergence SFP expression function. However, given the multiple other factors could vary among populations, isolating SFP-mediated effects is not straightforward. Here, we attempted to address gap by combining power of a common garden design with functional assays involving artificial injection simultaneously hermaphroditic freshwater snail, Lymnaea stagnalis. We detected gene expression, suggesting seminal composition differs four populations collected Western Europe. Furthermore, artificially injecting extracted from these field-derived snails into standardized also strength induced fluid. Both egg production subsequent sperm transfer partners differed depending on population origin fluid, response seemingly closely corresponding expression. Our results thus lend strong intraspecific support notion function rapidly, confirm L. stagnalis an amenable system for studying processes driving