High rates of conspecific brood parasitism revealed by microsatellite analysis in a diving duck, the common pochard <i>Aythya ferina</i>

Šťovíček, Ondřej; Kreisinger, Jakub; Javůrková, Veronika; Albrecht, Tomáš

doi:10.1111/j.1600-048x.2013.00074.x

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…If a parasite can lay her egg(s) in the nest of an unrelated host, she is likely to increase her expected number of offspring. But trying to lay eggs in the nest of an unknown female may fail for several reasons (Roy Nielsen et al ., , c ; Anderholm et al ., , b ; Štovíček et al ., ). A close relative may offer a safer possibility; host–parasite relatedness tended to be higher in successful than in failing goldeneye nests (Andersson & Åhlund, ).…”

Section: Causes Of Host–parasite Relatednessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brood parasitism, relatedness and sociality: a kinship role in female reproductive tactics

2018

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Conspecific brood parasitism (CBP) is a reproductive tactic in which parasitic females lay eggs in nests of other females of the same species that then raise the joint brood. Parasites benefit by increased reproduction, without costs of parental care for the parasitic eggs. CBP occurs in many egg-laying animals, among birds most often in species with large clutches and self-feeding young: two major factors facilitating successful parasitism. CBP is particularly common in waterfowl (Anatidae), a group with female-biased natal philopatry and locally related females. Theory suggests that relatedness between host and parasite can lead to inclusive fitness benefits for both, but if host costs are high, parasites should instead target unrelated females. Pairwise relatedness (r) in host-parasite (h-p) pairs of females has been estimated using molecular genetic methods in seven waterfowl (10 studies). In many h-p pairs, the two females were unrelated (with low r, near the local population mean). However, close relatives (r = 0.5) were over-represented in h-p pairs, which in all 10 studies had higher mean relatedness than other females. In one species where this was studied, h-p relatedness was higher than between nesting close neighbours, and hosts parasitized by non-relatives aggressively rejected other females. In another species, birth nest-mates (mother-daughters, sisters) associated in the breeding area as adults, and became h-p pairs more often than expected by chance. These and other results point to recognition of birth nest-mates and perhaps other close relatives. For small to medium host clutch sizes, addition of a few parasitic eggs need not reduce host offspring success. Estimates in two species suggest that hosts can then gain inclusive fitness if parasitized by relatives. Other evidence of female cooperation is incubation by old eider Somateria mollissima females of clutches laid by their relatives, and merging and joint care of broods of young. Merging females tended to be more closely related. Eiders associate with kin in many situations, and in some geese and swans, related females may associate over many years. Recent genetic evidence shows that also New World quails (Odontophoridae) have female-biased natal philopatry, CBP and brood merging, inviting further study and comparison with waterfowl. Kin-related parasitism also occurs in some insects, with revealing parallels and differences compared to birds. In hemipteran bugs, receiving extra eggs is beneficial for hosts by diluting offspring predation. In eggplant lace bugs Gargaphia solani, host and parasite are closely related, and kin selection favours egg donation to related females. Further studies of kinship in CBP, brood merging and other contexts can test if some of these species are socially more advanced than presently known.

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Section: Causes Of Host–parasite Relatednessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brood parasitism, relatedness and sociality: a kinship role in female reproductive tactics

2018

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“…As cervus was developed 12 years before colony , it is not surprising that the majority of the studies used the program cervus (17 of 28) to assign parentage, while three used colony , and one study used both. Several studies (seven) did not use either parentage assignment program but instead relied on methods such as comparing the genotypes of females and offspring and assigning maternity based on the occurrence of mismatches (often only at one or two loci) relative to that expected given allele frequencies, expected mutation rates, genotyping error, null alleles or allele drop‐out (e.g., Hervey et al, 2019; Šťovíček et al, 2013; Tiedemann et al, 2011). The choice to use exclusion by mismatch instead of parentage assignment may reflect a discomfort with available programs, including the limitations that we have tried to address in the present study (Anderholm et al, 2009); however, despite the appeal of simplicity, exclusion is somewhat arbitrary (Flanagan & Jones, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(often only at one or two loci) relative to that expected given allele frequencies, expected mutation rates, genotyping error, null alleles or allele drop-out (e.g., Hervey et al, 2019;Šťovíček et al, 2013;Tiedemann et al, 2011). The choice to use exclusion by mismatch instead of parentage assignment may reflect a discomfort with available programs, including the limitations that we have tried to address in the present study (Anderholm et al, 2009); however, despite the appeal of simplicity, exclusion is somewhat arbitrary (Flanagan & Jones, 2019).…”

Section: Implications For Past and Future Field Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pedigree simulations reveal that maternity assignment is reliable in populations with conspecific brood parasitism, incomplete parental sampling and kin structure

Thow

Eadie

Wells

et al. 2021

Molecular Ecology Resources

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Identifying the parents of offspring from a pool of candidate parents is critical for estimating the reproductive effort and success of individuals in populations, and for understanding the evolution of reproductive strategies generally. However, the existence of alternative reproductive tactics such as conspecific brood parasitism and extra-pair matings often makes assigning parentage and estimating

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“…In this study we have two main aims. First, we wanted to test if the Eadie's MED method is reliable for detecting CBP in our study species – common pochard Aythya ferina , in which high rates of CBP has been reported (Petrželková et al , Šťovíček et al ). In order to do this, we used nests that were independently identified as parasitized or non‐parasitized based on protein fingerprinting (Andersson and Åhlund ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Egg morphology fails to identify nests parasitized by conspecifics in common pochard: a test based on protein fingerprinting and including female relatedness

Petrželková

Pöysä

Klvaňa

et al. 2016

Journal of Avian Biology

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Conspecific brood parasites lay eggs in nests of other females of the same species. A variety of methods have been developed and used to detect conspecific brood parasitism (CBP). Traditional methods may be inaccurate in detecting CBP and in revealing its true frequency. On the other hand more accurate molecular methods are expensive and time consuming. Eadie developed a method for revealing CBP based on differences in egg morphology. That method is based on Euclidean distances calculated for pairs of eggs within a clutch using standardized egg measurements (length, width and weight). We tested the applicability of this method in the common pochard Aythya ferina using nests that were identified as parasitized (39 nests) or non‐parasitized (16 nests) based on protein fingerprinting of eggs. We also analyzed whether we can distinguish between parasitic and host eggs in the nest. We found that variation in MED can be explained by parasitism but there was a huge overlap in MED between parasitized and non‐parasitized nests. MED also increased with clutch size. Using discriminant function analysis (DFA) we found that only 76.4% of nests were correctly assigned as parasitized or non‐parasitized and only 68.3% of eggs as parasitic or host eggs. Moreover we found that MED in parasitized nests increased with relatedness of the females that laid eggs in the nest. This finding was supported by positive correlation between MED and estimated relatedness in female–female pairs. Although variation in egg morphology is associated with CBP, it does not provide a reliable clue for distinguishing parasitized nests from non‐parasitized nests in common pochard.

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High rates of conspecific brood parasitism revealed by microsatellite analysis in a diving duck, the common pochard Aythya ferina

Cited by 8 publications

References 65 publications

Brood parasitism, relatedness and sociality: a kinship role in female reproductive tactics

Brood parasitism, relatedness and sociality: a kinship role in female reproductive tactics

Pedigree simulations reveal that maternity assignment is reliable in populations with conspecific brood parasitism, incomplete parental sampling and kin structure

Egg morphology fails to identify nests parasitized by conspecifics in common pochard: a test based on protein fingerprinting and including female relatedness

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