Meeting Abstract

P3.122  Friday, Jan. 6  Do antioxidants mediate sexual selection after an extreme oxidative stressor in Drosophila melanogaster? DIAZ, L*; LOPEZ-MARTINEZ, G; HAHN, D.A.; University of Florida; University of Florida; University of Florida dahahn@ufl.edu

Almost all organisms are exposed to bouts of environmental stress. A wide variety of stressors from abiotic treats, like temperature and desiccation, to biotic threats, like pathogen infection and escape from predators, can induce oxidative stress. Resistance to oxidative stress has been associated with mating success in the context of sexual selection in numerous vertebrate taxa. Much of this work has focused on the role of diet-derived carotenoids in brightly colored birds and the role of endogenously produced antioxidant enzymes in sexual selection have received much less attention. Here we investigate the role of endogenous antioxidant enzymes on sexual selection in male Drosophila melanogaster flies that have been exposed to an extreme oxidative stressor, gamma irradiation. Using publicly available Gal4-UAS combinations we generate male flies with a range of antioxidant enzyme production and test the hypothesis that greater endogenous antioxidant capacity will be associated with greater mating success under stressful conditions.