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A rapidly evolving actin mediates fertility and developmental tradeoffs in Drosophila

Schroeder, C. M.; Tomlin, S. A.; Valenzuela, J. R.; Malik, H. S.

2020-09-28 cell biology Community evaluation
10.1101/2020.09.28.317503 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Most actin-related proteins (Arps) are highly conserved in eukaryotes, where they carry out well-defined cellular functions. Drosophila and mammals also encode divergent non-canonical Arps in their male-germline whose roles remain unknown. Here, we show that Arp53D, a rapidly-evolving Drosophila Arp, localizes to fusomes and actin cones, two male germline-specific actin structures critical for sperm maturation, via its non-canonical N-terminal tail. Although we expected that Arp53D loss would reduce male fertility, we instead find that Arp53D-KO males are more fertile, both in isolation and in competition with wildtype males. Upon investigating why evolution would retain a gene that negatively impacts male fertility, we unexpectedly found that Arp53D-KO females are less fertile. Moreover, KO embryos exhibit reduced viability, which worsens under heat stress. We conclude that testis-specific Arp53D is detrimental to male fertility, but is required for female fertility and early development, leading to its long-term retention and recurrent adaptation in Drosophila.

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