A Microsatellite Assessment of Sneaked Fertilizations and Egg Thievery in the Fifteenspine Stickleback

Abstract

Attempts by males to steal fertilizations from other males are common in many species. In some sticklebacks, males also are known to steal eggs from the nests of rivals and to carry them back to their own nests. However the genetic consequences of these nest-raiding behaviors seldom have been investigated. Here we assess genetically the prevalence of sneaked fertilizations and egg stealing, and we describe the mating system in a natural population of the fifteenspine stickleback. Six microsatellite markers were developed and employed to assay a total of 1307 embryos from 28 nests. Guardian males and all nest-holding males in the local area also were genotyped for two to six loci Analysis of male genotypes and those of embryos revealed that five of the 28 nests (18%) contained progeny from sneaked fertilizations, and that four of the 24 nests (17%) with resident males contained stolen egg clutches Comparisons of the composite DNA genotypes of nest-holding males against those of inferred sneakers implicated one nest holder as the sneaker of a nest seven meters from his own. Also, the genetic data demonstrated that nests of males frequently contain eggs from multiple females. The multilocus genotypes of inferred mothers indicated that females mate with multiple males, sometimes over distances greater than one kilometer.

Molecular Genetic Dissection of Spawning, Parentage, and Reproductive Tactics in a Population of Redbreast Sunfish, Lepomis auritus

“…Conventional exclusion probabilities (Chakraborty et al 1988) were 0.84 and 0.80 for these loci, yielding a combined parental exclusion probability of 0.97. However, in the case of unknown parentage (not just paternity), modified exclusion probabilities are required (Dodds et al 1996;Jones et al 1998). In this case, our combined paternity/maternity exclusion index was greater than 0.90.…”

“…For instance, genetic data demonstrate that many passeriform birds thought to be socially monogamous are genetically polygamous (reviews in Birkhead and Meller 1992;Avise 1994). Whereas avian and mammalian taxa have received considerable attention in genetic reanalyses of mating systems, fishes have been largely neglected in such studies (but see Philipp and Gross 1994;Jones and Avise 1997a,b;Jones et al 1998). This is surprising given the great diversity of mating systems and reproductive tactics suspected in fishes (Taborsky 1994).…”

Extra‐pair mating in a socially monogamous and paternal mouth‐brooding cardinalfish

“…The idea that high investment, male paternal care is associated with the assurance of sole paternity does seem to apply to pipefish and seahorses (Syngnathidae), in which males brood embryos in external or internal brood pouches. In all syngnathid species surveyed with genetic methods, the brooder has proven to be the sole sire of its clutch, even in the pipefish Nerophis ophidion, in which clutches are brooded externally (Jones & Avise, 11997a;Jones & Avise, 1997b;Jones, Rosenqvist, Berglund, & Avise, 1999McCoy et al, 2001 Wilkins, Nelson, & Avise, 1998;Gross, 1991;Neff, 2004), darters , sand gobies (Jones, Walker, Lindstrom, Kvarnemo, & Avise, 2001) and sticklebacks (Jones, Ostlund-nilsson, & Avise, 1998). In these systems, paternal investment is lower and thus the cost of tending a few extra eggs is negligible.…”

The genetic mating system and tests for cuckoldry in a pipefish species in which males fertilize eggs and brood offspring externally

“…In the four members of the stickleback family (Gasterosteidae) used as outgroups in the Wilson et al (2001) phylogenetic analysis, males build nests and guard eggs. The only genetic study to date of mating behaviours in sticklebacks ( Jones et al 1998b) showed that both male and female fifteenspine sticklebacks (Spinachia spinachia) mate with multiple partners, and that ≈ 18% of the male-tended nests contained embryos resulting from sneaked fertilization events. Thus, regular male cuckoldry attendant with external fertilization and nest construction was probably a characteristic feature also of other fishes ancestral to the modern Syngnathidae.…”