Cargando…

Oviductal fluid counterbalances the negative effect of high temperature on sperm in an ectotherm model

Global warming is affecting biodiversity; however, the extent to which animal reproductive processes respond to predicted temperature increments remains largely unexplored. The thermal environment has a pronounced impact on metabolic rates of ectotherms; therefore, an interesting question to assess...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rossi, N., Lopez Juri, G., Chiaraviglio, M., Cardozo, G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Company of Biologists Ltd 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8061905/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33737294
http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/bio.058593
_version_ 1783681656030232576
author Rossi, N.
Lopez Juri, G.
Chiaraviglio, M.
Cardozo, G.
author_facet Rossi, N.
Lopez Juri, G.
Chiaraviglio, M.
Cardozo, G.
author_sort Rossi, N.
collection PubMed
description Global warming is affecting biodiversity; however, the extent to which animal reproductive processes respond to predicted temperature increments remains largely unexplored. The thermal environment has a pronounced impact on metabolic rates of ectotherms; therefore, an interesting question to assess is whether temperature increase might affect specific reproductive mechanisms like sperm performance in ectotherms. Moreover, in many species, oviductal fluid (OF) is known to regulate and maintain sperm quality; however, the role of OF in relation to the effects of high temperature on sperm remains unclear. Our aim was to experimentally test the effect of increased temperature on sperm velocity, swimming path and percentage of motility in neutral conditions at ejaculation (without OF) and in female's reproductive tract fluid (with OF), in a social ectotherm lizard model, Tropidurus spinulosus, which has specific thermal requirements for reproduction. Our results suggest that a rising temperature associated with global warming (+4°C) affects negatively sperm dynamics and survival. However, OF ameliorated the harmful effects of high temperature. This is an important point, as this study is the first to have tested the role of OF in preserving sperm from a warmer pre-fertilization environment. These results contribute to our understanding of how thermal environment changes might affect post-copulatory reproductive mechanisms. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8061905
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher The Company of Biologists Ltd
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-80619052021-04-23 Oviductal fluid counterbalances the negative effect of high temperature on sperm in an ectotherm model Rossi, N. Lopez Juri, G. Chiaraviglio, M. Cardozo, G. Biol Open Research Article Global warming is affecting biodiversity; however, the extent to which animal reproductive processes respond to predicted temperature increments remains largely unexplored. The thermal environment has a pronounced impact on metabolic rates of ectotherms; therefore, an interesting question to assess is whether temperature increase might affect specific reproductive mechanisms like sperm performance in ectotherms. Moreover, in many species, oviductal fluid (OF) is known to regulate and maintain sperm quality; however, the role of OF in relation to the effects of high temperature on sperm remains unclear. Our aim was to experimentally test the effect of increased temperature on sperm velocity, swimming path and percentage of motility in neutral conditions at ejaculation (without OF) and in female's reproductive tract fluid (with OF), in a social ectotherm lizard model, Tropidurus spinulosus, which has specific thermal requirements for reproduction. Our results suggest that a rising temperature associated with global warming (+4°C) affects negatively sperm dynamics and survival. However, OF ameliorated the harmful effects of high temperature. This is an important point, as this study is the first to have tested the role of OF in preserving sperm from a warmer pre-fertilization environment. These results contribute to our understanding of how thermal environment changes might affect post-copulatory reproductive mechanisms. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper. The Company of Biologists Ltd 2021-04-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8061905/ /pubmed/33737294 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/bio.058593 Text en © 2021. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
spellingShingle Research Article
Rossi, N.
Lopez Juri, G.
Chiaraviglio, M.
Cardozo, G.
Oviductal fluid counterbalances the negative effect of high temperature on sperm in an ectotherm model
title Oviductal fluid counterbalances the negative effect of high temperature on sperm in an ectotherm model
title_full Oviductal fluid counterbalances the negative effect of high temperature on sperm in an ectotherm model
title_fullStr Oviductal fluid counterbalances the negative effect of high temperature on sperm in an ectotherm model
title_full_unstemmed Oviductal fluid counterbalances the negative effect of high temperature on sperm in an ectotherm model
title_short Oviductal fluid counterbalances the negative effect of high temperature on sperm in an ectotherm model
title_sort oviductal fluid counterbalances the negative effect of high temperature on sperm in an ectotherm model
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8061905/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33737294
http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/bio.058593
work_keys_str_mv AT rossin oviductalfluidcounterbalancesthenegativeeffectofhightemperatureonsperminanectothermmodel
AT lopezjurig oviductalfluidcounterbalancesthenegativeeffectofhightemperatureonsperminanectothermmodel
AT chiaravigliom oviductalfluidcounterbalancesthenegativeeffectofhightemperatureonsperminanectothermmodel
AT cardozog oviductalfluidcounterbalancesthenegativeeffectofhightemperatureonsperminanectothermmodel