Sperm optimum phenotype in a social wasp

• Grant number: 22/04031-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2022
• End date: March 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Animal Behavior
• Principal Investigator: André Rodrigues de Souza
• Grantee: João Lucas Lapria Polo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/14464-2 - Sexual selection in neotropical social wasps, AP.JP

Abstract

Sperm selection in the female reproductive tract is common in many animals and may allow only the "best" gametes to fertilize. In this sense, spermatozoa may have an "optimal phenotype". Despite intra-individual morphological variation in male gametes, few studies have demonstrated that, in the same male, morphologically distinct subpopulations of sperm are more likely to reach the site of fertilization. Comparing the sperm from the storage organs in males (seminal vesicles) and females (vagina and spermatheca) of the neotropical species Polistes simillimus, we intend to experimentally test the hypothesis that the set of spermatozoa that reached the spermatheca and probably will fertilize eggs (selected sperm) are morphologically distinct from those present in the male's vagina and seminal vesicles (unselected sperm). It is about verifying the occurrence of an "optimal phenotype" in the sperm of a social wasp.(AU)