ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2015
Protein and carbohydrate intake influence sperm number and fertility in male cockroaches, but not sperm viability.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nutritional Trade-Offs inBiology · 2025Article
- Parental effects on offspring sex ratio in the Numbat (Journal of mammalogy · 2023Article
- Male responses to sperm competition risk associated with increased macronutrient intake and reduced lifespan.Biology letters · 2023Article
- Nutrigonometry IV: Thales' theorem to measure the rules of dietary compromise in animals.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Nutrigonometry II: Experimental strategies to maximize nutritional information in multidimensional performance landscapes.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Utility of cockroach as a model organism in the assessment of toxicological impacts of environmental pollutants.Environmental advances · 2022Article
- Mapping sex differences in the effects of protein and carbohydrates on lifespan and reproduction in Drosophila melanogaster: is measuring nutrient intake essential?Biogerontology · 2022Article
- Sex-Specific Effect of the Dietary Protein to Carbohydrate Ratio on Personality in the Dubia Cockroach.Insects · 2022Article
- Parental dietary protein effects on offspring viability in insects and other oviparous invertebrates: a meta-analysis.Current research in insect science · 2022Review
- Oxidative Damage Is Influenced by Diet But Unaffected by Selection for Early Age of Oviposition in the Marula Fly,Frontiers in physiology · 2022Article
- The trade-off between investment in weapons and fertility is mediated through spermatogenesis in the leaf-footed cactus bugEcology and evolution · 2021Article
- Article
- Artificial Diets Modulate Infection Rates byMicroorganisms · 2021Article
- Dietary macronutrient balance and fungal infection as drivers of spermatophore quality in the mealworm beetle.Current research in insect science · 2021Article
- Obesity and Male Reproduction; Placing the Western Diet in Context.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2021Review
- Impact of mitonuclear interactions on life-history responses to diet.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Article
- High-energy diet enhances spermatogenic function and increases sperm midpiece length in fallow deer (Royal Society open science · 2019Article
- Physiological and Environmental Factors Affecting the Composition of the Ejaculate in Mosquitoes and Other Insects.Insects · 2019Review
- Crowded developmental environment promotes adult sex-specific nutrient consumption in a polyphagous fly.Frontiers in zoology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
It is commonly assumed that because males produce many, tiny sperm, they are cheap to produce. Recent work, however, suggests that sperm production is not cost-free. If sperm are costly to produce, sperm number and/or viability should be influenced by diet, and this has been documented in numerous species. Yet few studies have examined the exact nutrients responsible for mediating these effects. Here, we quantify the effects of protein (P) and carbohydrate (C) intake on sperm number and viability in the cockroach Nauphoeta cinerea, as well as the consequences for male fertility. We found the intake of P and C influenced sperm number, being maximized at a high intake of diets with a P : C ratio of 1 : 2, but not sperm viability. The nutritional landscapes for male fertility and sperm number were closely aligned, suggesting that sperm number is the major determinant of male fertility in N. cinerea. Under dietary choice, males regulate nutrient intake at a P : C ratio of 1 : 4.95, which is midway between the ratios needed to maximize sperm production and pre-copulatory attractiveness in this species. This raises the possibility that males regulate nutrient intake to balance the trade-off between pre- and post-copulatory traits in this species.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.