Drosophila Sperm Swim Backwards in the Female Reproductive Tract and Are Activated via TRPP2 Ion Channels

Sperm have but one purpose, to fertilize an egg. In various species including Drosophila melanogaster female sperm storage is a necessary step in the reproductive process. Amo is a homolog of the human transient receptor potential channel TRPP2 (also known as PKD2), which is mutated in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. In flies Amo is required for sperm storage. Drosophila males with Amo mutations produce motile sperm that are transferred to the uterus but they do not reach the female storage organs. Therefore Amo appears to be a mediator of directed sperm motility in the female reproductive tract but the underlying mechanism is unknown.Amo exhibits a unique expression pattern during spermatogenesis. In spermatocytes, Amo is restricted to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) whereas in mature sperm, Amo clusters at the distal tip of the sperm tail. Here we show that flagellar localization of Amo is required for sperm storage. This raised the question of how Amo at the rear end of sperm regulates forward movement into the storage organs. In order to address this question, we used in vivo imaging of dual labelled sperm to demonstrate that Drosophila sperm navigate backwards in the female reproductive tract. In addition, we show that sperm exhibit hyperactivation upon transfer to the uterus. Amo mutant sperm remain capable of reverse motility but fail to display hyperactivation and directed movement, suggesting that these functions are required for sperm storage in flies.Amo is part of a signalling complex at the leading edge of the sperm tail that modulates flagellar beating and that guides a backwards path into the storage organs. Our data support an evolutionarily conserved role for TRPP2 channels in cilia

The Drosophila melanogaster Seminal Fluid Protease “Seminase” Regulates Proteolytic and Post-Mating Reproductive Processes

Proteases and protease inhibitors have been identified in the ejaculates of animal taxa ranging from invertebrates to mammals and form a major protein class among Drosophila melanogaster seminal fluid proteins (SFPs). Other than a single protease cascade in mammals that regulates seminal clot liquefaction, no proteolytic cascades (i.e. pathways with at least two proteases acting in sequence) have been identified in seminal fluids. In Drosophila, SFPs are transferred to females during mating and, together with sperm, are necessary for the many post-mating responses elicited in females. Though several SFPs are proteolytically cleaved either during or after mating, virtually nothing is known about the proteases involved in these cleavage events or the physiological consequences of proteolytic activity in the seminal fluid on the female. Here, we present evidence that a protease cascade acts in the seminal fluid of Drosophila during and after mating. Using RNAi to knock down expression of the SFP CG10586, a predicted serine protease, we show that it acts upstream of the SFP CG11864, a predicted astacin protease, to process SFPs involved in ovulation and sperm entry into storage. We also show that knockdown of CG10586 leads to lower levels of egg laying, higher rates of sexual receptivity to subsequent males, and abnormal sperm usage patterns, processes that are independent of CG11864. The long-term phenotypes of females mated to CG10586 knockdown males are similar to those of females that fail to store sex peptide, an important elicitor of long-term post-mating responses, and indicate a role for CG10586 in regulating sex peptide. These results point to an important role for proteolysis among insect SFPs and suggest that protease cascades may be a mechanism for precise temporal regulation of multiple post-mating responses in females

The Octopamine Receptor OAMB Mediates Ovulation via Ca2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase II in the Drosophila Oviduct Epithelium

Ovulation is an essential physiological process in sexual reproduction; however, the underlying cellular mechanisms are poorly understood. We have previously shown that OAMB, a Drosophila G-protein-coupled receptor for octopamine (the insect counterpart of mammalian norepinephrine), is required for ovulation induced upon mating. OAMB is expressed in the nervous and reproductive systems and has two isoforms (OAMB-AS and OAMB-K3) with distinct capacities to increase intracellular Ca2+ or intracellular Ca2+ and cAMP in vitro. Here, we investigated tissue specificity and intracellular signals required for OAMB's function in ovulation. Restricted OAMB expression in the adult oviduct epithelium, but not the nervous system, reinstated ovulation in oamb mutant females, in which either OAMB isoform was sufficient for the rescue. Consistently, strong immunoreactivities for both isoforms were observed in the wild-type oviduct epithelium. To delineate the cellular mechanism by which OAMB regulates ovulation, we explored protein kinases functionally interacting with OAMB by employing a new GAL4 driver with restricted expression in the oviduct epithelium. Conditional inhibition of Ca2+/Calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), but not protein kinase A or C, in the oviduct epithelium inhibited ovulation. Moreover, constitutively active CaMKII, but not protein kinase A, expressed only in the adult oviduct epithelium fully rescued the oamb female's phenotype, demonstrating CaMKII as a major downstream molecule conveying the OAMB's ovulation signal. This is consistent with the ability of both OAMB isoforms, whose common intracellular signal in vitro is Ca2+, to reinstate ovulation in oamb females. These observations reveal the critical roles of the oviduct epithelium and its cellular components OAMB and CaMKII in ovulation. It is conceivable that the OAMB-mediated cellular activities stimulated upon mating are crucial for secretory activities suitable for egg transfer from the ovary to the uterus

The Octopamine Receptor OAMB Mediates Ovulation via Ca2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase II in the Drosophila Oviduct Epithelium

Ovulation is an essential physiological process in sexual reproduction; however, the underlying cellular mechanisms are poorly understood. We have previously shown that OAMB, a Drosophila G-protein-coupled receptor for octopamine (the insect counterpart of mammalian norepinephrine), is required for ovulation induced upon mating. OAMB is expressed in the nervous and reproductive systems and has two isoforms (OAMB-AS and OAMB-K3) with distinct capacities to increase intracellular Ca2+ or intracellular Ca2+ and cAMP in vitro. Here, we investigated tissue specificity and intracellular signals required for OAMB's function in ovulation. Restricted OAMB expression in the adult oviduct epithelium, but not the nervous system, reinstated ovulation in oamb mutant females, in which either OAMB isoform was sufficient for the rescue. Consistently, strong immunoreactivities for both isoforms were observed in the wild-type oviduct epithelium. To delineate the cellular mechanism by which OAMB regulates ovulation, we explored protein kinases functionally interacting with OAMB by employing a new GAL4 driver with restricted expression in the oviduct epithelium. Conditional inhibition of Ca2+/Calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), but not protein kinase A or C, in the oviduct epithelium inhibited ovulation. Moreover, constitutively active CaMKII, but not protein kinase A, expressed only in the adult oviduct epithelium fully rescued the oamb female's phenotype, demonstrating CaMKII as a major downstream molecule conveying the OAMB's ovulation signal. This is consistent with the ability of both OAMB isoforms, whose common intracellular signal in vitro is Ca2+, to reinstate ovulation in oamb females. These observations reveal the critical roles of the oviduct epithelium and its cellular components OAMB and CaMKII in ovulation. It is conceivable that the OAMB-mediated cellular activities stimulated upon mating are crucial for secretory activities suitable for egg transfer from the ovary to the uterus

Precise measurement of the W-boson mass with the CDF II detector

We have measured the W-boson mass MW using data corresponding to 2.2/fb of integrated luminosity collected in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.96 TeV with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. Samples consisting of 470126 W->enu candidates and 624708 W->munu candidates yield the measurement MW = 80387 +- 12 (stat) +- 15 (syst) = 80387 +- 19 MeV. This is the most precise measurement of the W-boson mass to date and significantly exceeds the precision of all previous measurements combined

X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources

We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30 kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101 sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns

Search for new physics with same-sign isolated dilepton events with jets and missing transverse energy

A search for new physics is performed in events with two same-sign isolated leptons, hadronic jets, and missing transverse energy in the final state. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 inverse femtobarns produced in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. This constitutes a factor of 140 increase in integrated luminosity over previously published results. The observed yields agree with the standard model predictions and thus no evidence for new physics is found. The observations are used to set upper limits on possible new physics contributions and to constrain supersymmetric models. To facilitate the interpretation of the data in a broader range of new physics scenarios, information on the event selection, detector response, and efficiencies is provided.Comment: Published in Physical Review Letter

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO