Heritability of sperm length in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris

Baer, Boris; Jong, G. de; Schmid‐Hempel, Regula; Schmid‐Hempel, Paul; Høeg, Jens T.; Boomsma, Jacobus J.

doi:10.1007/s10709-005-2157-1

Cited by 14 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…The increase in heritability due to within‐sample averaging corresponds very closely to findings by Baer et al. () in bumblebees, Bombus terrestris (Table ). Similarly, heritability of total sperm length would also decrease to 0.35 ± 0.13 SE if we used mean sperm length per sample but did not fit any fixed effects that decrease the amount of residual variation (details not shown).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Moderate heritability and low evolvability of sperm morphology in a species with high risk of sperm competition, the collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis

Edme

Zobač

Korsten

et al. 2018

J of Evolutionary Biology

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Spermatozoa represent the morphologically most diverse type of animal cells and show remarkable variation in size across and also within species. To understand the evolution of this diversity, it is important to reveal to what degree this variation is genetic or environmental in origin and whether this depends on species’ life histories. Here we applied quantitative genetic methods to a pedigreed multigenerational data set of the collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis, a passerine bird with high levels of extra‐pair paternity, to partition genetic and environmental sources of phenotypic variation in sperm dimensions for the first time in a natural population. Narrow‐sense heritability (h2) of total sperm length amounted to 0.44 ± 0.14 SE, whereas the corresponding figure for evolvability (estimated as coefficient of additive genetic variation, CVa) was 0.02 ± 0.003 SE. We also found an increase in total sperm length within individual males between the arrival and nestling period. This seasonal variation may reflect constraints in the production of fully elongated spermatozoa shortly after arrival at the breeding grounds. There was no evidence of an effect of male age on sperm dimensions. In many previous studies on laboratory populations of several insect, mammal and avian species, heritabilities of sperm morphology were higher, whereas evolvabilities were similar. Explanations for the differences in heritability may include variation in the environment (laboratory vs. wild), intensity of sexual selection via sperm competition (high vs. low) and genetic architecture that involves unusual linkage disequilibrium coupled with overdominance in one of the studied species.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Moderate heritability and low evolvability of sperm morphology in a species with high risk of sperm competition, the collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis

Edme

Zobač

Korsten

et al. 2018

J of Evolutionary Biology

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“…Cumulatively, they explained 13.0% (antibacterial activity against A. globiformis) and 12.0% (antibacterial activity against P. alvei) of the phenotypic variation, respectively. Although we unexpectedly (Baer et al 2006) found no main effect QTLs explaining the phenotypic variation in sperm length in this population, we identified one suggestive QTL for the number of stored sperm, explaining 5.1% of variation. For the size of the accessory glands, we identified four to seven QTLs, depending on the mapping method.…”

Section: Qtl Analysiscontrasting

confidence: 78%

“…Although they found that most of the variation resides within the individual male, they also demonstrated that queens preferentially store a certain individual size range of their mate's sperm. Furthermore, sperm length is known to be a heritable trait (Baer et al 2006). Hence, we included both sperm number and sperm length in our fitness measures.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Genetic Architecture of Immune Defense and Reproduction in Male Bombus Terrestris Bumblebees

2007

Self Cite

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Understanding the architecture of genetic variation, that is the number, effect, location, and interaction, of genes responsible for phenotypic variability in nature is important for the understanding of microevolutionary processes. In this study, we have used a quantitative trait loci (QTL) approach to uncover the genetic architecture of fitness-relevant traits associated with reproduction and immune defense in male Bombus terrestris bumblebees. Three male reproductive investment traits, the number and length of the produced sperm and the size of the accessory glands, were studied. Two branches of the insect innate immune system, the activation of the Phenoloxidase-cascade and the hemolymph's antibacterial activity, were investigated. We found that variation in most of the studied traits is based on a network of minor QTLs and epistatic interactions. Unexpectedly, there was no evidence for phenotypic or genetic trade-offs between the presumably costly investment in immune defense and reproductive effort in this population for the measured traits. In fact, we found a positive correlation, both, in phenotype and genetic architecture for the number of produced sperm and antibacterial activity against an insect pathogen. A major finding for all traits analyzed was that the epistatic interactions accounted for a major proportion of the explained phenotypic variance. Especially for traits involved in immune defense, this pattern highlights the possible role of parasites in the evolution and maintenance of recombination and sexual reproduction.

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“…Nevertheless, aspects of sperm length have been shown to be heritable in birds (Birkhead et al, 2005), rabbits (Napier, 1961) and mice (Woolley and Beatty, 1967). Similarly, among insects, sperm length is heritable in bees (Baer et al, 2006), beetles (Simmons and Kotiaho, 2002) and crickets (Morrow and Gage, 2001b), and these heritability estimates are relatively high, ranging from around 40% to more than 100% (with the latter estimate thought to be upwardly biased by sex-linked inheritance). In addition to the general paucity of estimates of the heritability of sperm length (Simmons and Moore, 2009), only a few studies have selected on sperm length to unequivocally show that length indeed responds to selection (Morrow and Gage, 2001b;Miller and Pitnick, 2002)-sperm length may not evolve because of the underlying genetic architecture (for example, see Blows and Hoffmann, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response to selection and realized heritability of sperm length in the yellow dung fly (Scathophaga stercoraria)

Dobler

Hosken

2009

Heredity

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Sperm length shows considerable phenotypic variation both inter-and intra-specifically, but a general explanation for this variation is lacking. In addition, our understanding of the genetic variation underlying sperm length variation is also limited because there have been few studies on the genetics of sperm size. One factor that could explain the variation in sperm length is that length influences sperm competitiveness, and there is some evidence for this. However, in yellow dung flies (Scathophaga stercoraria), microevolutionary responses to experimental variation at levels of sperm competition indicate that sperm length does not influence sperm competitiveness, although this lack of response may simply indicate sperm length lacks evolutionary potential (that is, it is constrained in some way), in spite of evidence that sperm length is heritable. Here we report on a laboratory study, in which we artificially selected upwards and downwards on sperm length in S. stercoraria. We found that sperm length significantly diverged after four generations of selection, but the response to selection was asymmetrical: upward selection generated a rapid response, but downward did not. We estimated the realized heritability of sperm length to be approximately 50%, which is consistent with previous sire-son estimates. We also assessed the fertility of males from upward and downward lines and found they did not differ. Results are discussed in the context of sperm competition.

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Heritability of sperm length in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris

Cited by 14 publications

References 50 publications

Moderate heritability and low evolvability of sperm morphology in a species with high risk of sperm competition, the collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis

Moderate heritability and low evolvability of sperm morphology in a species with high risk of sperm competition, the collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis

The Genetic Architecture of Immune Defense and Reproduction in Male Bombus Terrestris Bumblebees

Response to selection and realized heritability of sperm length in the yellow dung fly (Scathophaga stercoraria)

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