title: Cancer brings forward oviposition in the flyDrosophila melanogaster.
abstract: Hosts often accelerate their reproductive effort in response to a parasitic infection, especially when their chances of future reproduction decrease with time from the onset of the infection. Because malignancies usually reduce survival, and hence potentially the fitness, it is expected that hosts with early cancer could have evolved to adjust their life-history traits to maximize their immediate reproductive effort. Despite the potential importance of these plastic responses, little attention has been devoted to explore how cancers influence animal reproduction. Here, we use an experimental setup, a colony of genetically modified fliesDrosophila melanogasterwhich develop colorectal cancer in the anterior gut, to show the role of cancer in altering life-history traits. Specifically, we tested whether females adapt their reproductive strategy in response to harboring cancer. We found that flies with cancer reached the peak period of oviposition significantly earlier (i.e., 2 days) than healthy ones, while no difference in the length and extent of the fecundity peak was observed between the two groups of flies. Such compensatory responses to overcome the fitness-limiting effect of cancer could explain the persistence of inherited cancer-causing mutant alleles in the wild.
authors.affiliation: CREEC MIVEGEC UMR IRD/CNRS/UM 5290 911 Avenue Agropolis, BP 64501 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5 France.
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arnal
authors.affiliation: CREEC MIVEGEC UMR IRD/CNRS/UM 5290 911 Avenue Agropolis, BP 64501 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5 France.
authors.forename: Camille
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jacqueline
authors.affiliation: Centre for Integrative Ecology School of Life and Environmental Sciences Deakin University Waurn Ponds Vic. Australia.
authors.forename: Beata
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ujvari
authors.affiliation: CREEC MIVEGEC UMR IRD/CNRS/UM 5290 911 Avenue Agropolis, BP 64501 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5 France.
authors.forename: Lucas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Leger
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Évolution, Génomes, et Spéciation Unité Propre de Recherche 9034 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique , 91198 Gif sur Yvette, France; Université Paris-Sud 11 91405 Orsay France.
authors.forename: Céline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.affiliation: CREEC MIVEGEC UMR IRD/CNRS/UM 5290 911 Avenue Agropolis, BP 64501 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5 France.
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Faugere
authors.affiliation: University of Lille CNRS UMR 8198 - Evo-Eco-Paleo 59000 Lille France.
authors.forename: Aurélie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tasiemski
authors.affiliation: University of Lille CNRS UMR 8198 - Evo-Eco-Paleo 59000 Lille France.
authors.forename: Céline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boidin-Wichlacz
authors.affiliation: CREEC MIVEGEC UMR IRD/CNRS/UM 5290 911 Avenue Agropolis, BP 64501 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5 France.
authors.forename: Dorothée
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Misse
authors.affiliation: CREEC MIVEGEC UMR IRD/CNRS/UM 5290 911 Avenue Agropolis, BP 64501 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5 France.
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Renaud
authors.affiliation: Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC) CNRS Université Paris-Sud CEA, UMR9198 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette France.
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Montagne
authors.affiliation: Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) Barcelona Spain.
authors.forename: Andreu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Casali
authors.affiliation: CREEC MIVEGEC UMR IRD/CNRS/UM 5290911 Avenue Agropolis, BP 64501 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5 France; International Center for Mathematical and Computational Modelling of Complex Systems (UMI IRD/UPMC UMMISCO) 32 Avenue Henri Varagnat 93143 Bondy Cedex France.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Roche
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Évolution, Génomes, et Spéciation Unité Propre de Recherche 9034 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique , 91198 Gif sur Yvette, France; Université Paris-Sud 11 91405 Orsay France.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mery
authors.affiliation: CREEC MIVEGEC UMR IRD/CNRS/UM 5290 911 Avenue Agropolis, BP 64501 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5 France.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Thomas
keywords: cancer; fecundity; life‐history strategy; reproduction