{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,5]],"date-time":"2026-06-05T21:10:51Z","timestamp":1780693851093,"version":"3.54.1"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]]},"group-title":"Developmental Biology","reference-count":18,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780358400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  In the animal kingdom, copulatory wounds occur due to aggressive behavior or injury from the female or male appendages in contact. Copulatory wounds are a source of sexual conflict as the injury can lead to death or infection. In the laboratory,\n                  <jats:italic>Drosophila melanogaster<\/jats:italic>\n                  does not ordinarily exhibit signs of injury during copulation, but here we find can be induced to do so by overexpression of the serine protease,\n                  <jats:italic>Hayan<\/jats:italic>\n                  , in either the male or female fruit fly. Melanin deposits mark sites of injury along the female ventral abdomen and occur following a single copulation event. The male fly mid-legs are the source of injury as they rub against the ventral female abdomen. Surgical removal of the male mid-legs prevents melanization while still permitting mating to occur. Likewise, removal of the right or left mid-leg results in a corresponding loss of melanization on the female abdominal side that lacks the mid-leg contact. Thus, it appears that overexpression of\n                  <jats:italic>Hayan<\/jats:italic>\n                  alters the female and male anatomy to sensitize it to injury during copulation. We show that these copulatory wounds heal similar to a puncture wound via the generation of enlarged multinucleated, polyploid cells. However, the size of the injury dictates the mechanism of healing. The polyploid cells arise solely by cell fusion in response to small injuries (&lt;1,000\u03bcm\n                  <jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>\n                  ), whereas the endocycle is simultaneously simulated by larger wounds (&gt;3,000\u03bcm\n                  <jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>\n                  ) to compensate for cell loss. Therefore, we speculate that wound-induced polyploidization may have evolved to repair similar injuries resulting from sexual conflict in nature.\n                <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.05.29.728886","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T13:55:20Z","timestamp":1780408520000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A genetic model of copulatory wounding in\n                  <i>Drosophila melanogaster<\/i>"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"given":"Sophie L.","family":"Jalkut","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Boston College, Department of Biology, 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, MA 02467"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lydia M.","family":"Bischoff","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Boston College, Department of Biology, 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, MA 02467"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maximilian J.","family":"Pitsch","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children\u2019s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4608-2980","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vicki P.","family":"Losick","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Boston College, Department of Biology, 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, MA 02467"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bailey, E. C. , Dehn, A. S. , Gjelsvik, K. J. , Besen-Mcnally, R. & Losick, V. P. 2020. A Drosophila Model to Study Wound-induced Polyploidization. J Vis Exp.","DOI":"10.3791\/61252-v"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Boutros, C. L. , Miner, L. E. , Mazor, O. & Zhang, S. X. 2017. Measuring and Altering Mating Drive in Male Drosophila melanogaster. J Vis Exp.","DOI":"10.3791\/55291"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/J.CELREP.2019.03.101"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/s12915-015-0193-6"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pbio.0020239"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-024-07749-7"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.celrep.2012.09.011"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cub.2013.09.029"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Massey, J. H. , Chung, D. , Siwanowicz, I. , Stern, D. L. & Wittkopp, P. J. 2019. The yellow gene influences Drosophila male mating success through sex comb melanization. Elife, 8.","DOI":"10.7554\/eLife.49388"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/emboj.2011.476"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1006\/dbio.2001.0502"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Reinhardt, K. , Anthes, N. & Lange, R. 2015. Copulatory wounding and traumatic insemination. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol, 7.","DOI":"10.1101\/cshperspect.a017582"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2522067123","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2522067123","article-title":"Epithelial cell fusion is required for tissue repair following UV-A irradiation","volume":"123","year":"2026","journal-title":"Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.101440698"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.15","first-page":"20250523","article-title":"Two matings lead to more copulatory wounding than a single mating in female Drosophila melanogaster","volume":"292","year":"2025","journal-title":"Proc Biol Sci"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1098\/rsos.240256"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1074\/jbc.M601642200"},{"key":"2026060513250824000_2026.05.29.728886v1.18","first-page":"20232808","article-title":"Sexual conflict and sexual networks in bed bugs: the fitness cost of traumatic insemination, female avoidance and male mate choice","volume":"291","year":"2024","journal-title":"Proc Biol Sci"}],"container-title":[],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/syndication.highwire.org\/content\/doi\/10.64898\/2026.05.29.728886","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,5]],"date-time":"2026-06-05T20:25:23Z","timestamp":1780691123000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/biorxiv.org\/lookup\/doi\/10.64898\/2026.05.29.728886"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]]},"references-count":18,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.64898\/2026.05.29.728886","relation":{},"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]]},"subtype":"preprint"}}