Inbreeding depression of sperm traits in the zebra finch <i>Taeniopygia guttata</i>

Opatová, Pavlína; Ihle, Malika; Albrechtová, Jana; Tomášek, Oldřich; Kempenaers, Bart; Forstmeier, Wolfgang; Albrecht, Tomáš

doi:10.1002/ece3.1868

Cited by 43 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 57 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…; Opatová et al . ). In our experiment, we can eliminate natural selection through mortality as a major source of variation in male reproductive success (the two male deaths reduce our estimate of inbreeding depression).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Experimental evidence for sexual selection against inbred males

Vega‐Trejo

Head

Keogh

et al. 2017

Journal of Animal Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The detrimental effects of matings between relatives are well known. However, few studies determine the extent to which inbreeding depression in males is due to natural or sexual selection. Importantly, measuring fitness or key fitness components, rather than phenotypic traits allows more accurate estimation of inbreeding depression. We investigate how differences in inbreeding and juvenile diet (i.e. early stressful environment) influence a key component of male fitness, namely their reproductive success. We experimentally created inbred and outbred male mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) by mating full-sibs (f = 0·25). We show that this led to a 23% reduction in genome-wide heterozygosity based on SNPs. Males were raised on different diets early in life to create high-stress and low-stress rearing environments. We then allowed adult males to compete freely for females to test if inbreeding, early diet and their interaction affect a male's share of paternity. Early diet had no effect on paternity, but outbred males sired almost twice as many offspring as inbred males (n = 628 offspring from 122 potential sires). Using artificial insemination methods we determined that this was unlikely to be due to early embryo mortality of eggs fertilised by inbred males: there was no evidence that male inbreeding status affects the realised fecundity of females (n = 288). Given there was no difference in male mortality in our competitive mating experiment, the lower reproductive success of inbred males can most parsimoniously be attributed to inbreeding negatively affecting sexually selected traits that affect male mating success and/or sperm competitiveness. We discuss which sexually selected traits might be involved.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Experimental evidence for sexual selection against inbred males

Vega‐Trejo

Head

Keogh

et al. 2017

Journal of Animal Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the wider context, recent studies on captive and experimental populations that estimated inbreeding depression in sperm traits given moderate inbreeding (i.e., that could commonly arise in wild vertebrate populations) showed inconsistent results. Mean sperm velocity decreased by ‐3.3 μm/s in inbred red bulls ( Bos taurus , f = 0.13, Dorado et al., ), by ‐12.7 μm/s in experimentally inbred wild‐caught zebra finches ( f = 0.25, Opatová et al., ), but there was no effect of inbreeding on sperm velocity, motility, or longevity in inbred captive lake trout ( Salvelinus namaycush , f = 0.125–0.25, Johnson, Butts, Smith, Wilson, & Pitcher, ). Together with our results, this evidence implies that moderate inbreeding by parents does not always result in sons with low sperm performance, at least considering some key sperm traits that can affect male reproductive success (reviewed in Pizzari & Parker, ; Fitzpatrick & Lüpold, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

No evidence of inbreeding depression in sperm performance traits in wild song sparrows

Losdat

Germain

Nietlisbach

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Inbreeding is widely hypothesized to shape mating systems and population persistence, but such effects will depend on which traits show inbreeding depression. Population and evolutionary consequences could be substantial if inbreeding decreases sperm performance and hence decreases male fertilization success and female fertility. However, the magnitude of inbreeding depression in sperm performance traits has rarely been estimated in wild populations experiencing natural variation in inbreeding. Further, the hypothesis that inbreeding could increase within‐ejaculate variation in sperm traits and thereby further affect male fertilization success has not been explicitly tested. We used a wild pedigreed song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) population, where frequent extrapair copulations likely create strong postcopulatory competition for fertilization success, to quantify effects of male coefficient of inbreeding (f) on key sperm performance traits. We found no evidence of inbreeding depression in sperm motility, longevity, or velocity, and the within‐ejaculate variance in sperm velocity did not increase with male f. Contrary to inferences from highly inbred captive and experimental populations, our results imply that moderate inbreeding will not necessarily constrain sperm performance in wild populations. Consequently, the widely observed individual‐level and population‐level inbreeding depression in male and female fitness may not stem from reduced sperm performance in inbred males.

show abstract

“…Because our sperm samples came from males bred in captivity, we expect higher levels of inbreeding compared with males from wild populations. Studies exploring the effect of inbreeding on sperm characteristics of mammals and birds have shown that the proportion of abnormal sperm is higher, and sperm velocity lower in inbred compared with outbred males (Gomendio, Cassinello, & Roldan, ; Heber et al, ; Opatová et al, ). However, there is no evidence for inbreeding depression on the morphology (e.g., length, CV) of normal‐looking sperm of fish, fruit flies and birds (Ala‐Honkola et al, ; Mehlis, Frommen, Rahn, & Bakker, ; Opatová et al, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies exploring the effect of inbreeding on sperm characteristics of mammals and birds have shown that the proportion of abnormal sperm is higher, and sperm velocity lower in inbred compared with outbred males (Gomendio, Cassinello, & Roldan, ; Heber et al, ; Opatová et al, ). However, there is no evidence for inbreeding depression on the morphology (e.g., length, CV) of normal‐looking sperm of fish, fruit flies and birds (Ala‐Honkola et al, ; Mehlis, Frommen, Rahn, & Bakker, ; Opatová et al, ). Specifically, in zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ) inbreeding depression seems to have no more than a modest effect on the length (Cohen's d = −0.55) and a small effect on the CV ( d = 0.24) of normal‐looking sperm (Opatová et al, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, there is no evidence for inbreeding depression on the morphology (e.g., length, CV) of normal‐looking sperm of fish, fruit flies and birds (Ala‐Honkola et al, ; Mehlis, Frommen, Rahn, & Bakker, ; Opatová et al, ). Specifically, in zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ) inbreeding depression seems to have no more than a modest effect on the length (Cohen's d = −0.55) and a small effect on the CV ( d = 0.24) of normal‐looking sperm (Opatová et al, ). We therefore assume that our results reflect the variation in sperm morphology observed in wild parrots.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Sperm morphology and evidence for sperm competition among parrots

Carballo

Battistotti

Teltscher

et al. 2019

J of Evolutionary Biology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sperm competition is an important component of post‐copulatory sexual selection that has shaped the evolution of sperm morphology. Previous studies have reported that sperm competition has a concurrently directional and stabilizing effect on sperm size. For example, bird species that show higher levels of extrapair paternity and larger testes (proxies for the intensity of sperm competition) have longer sperm and lower coefficients of variation in sperm length, both within and between males. For this reason, these sperm traits have been proposed as indexes to estimate the level of sperm competition in species for which other measures are not available. The relationship between sperm competition and sperm morphology has been explored mostly for bird species that breed in temperate zones, with the main focus on passerine birds. We measured sperm morphology in 62 parrot species that breed mainly in the tropics and related variation in sperm length to life‐history traits potentially indicative of the level of sperm competition. We showed that sperm length negatively correlated with the within‐male coefficient of variation in sperm length and positively with testes mass. We also showed that sperm is longer in sexually dichromatic and in gregarious species. Our results support the general validity of the hypothesis that sperm competition drives variation in sperm morphology. Our analyses suggest that post‐copulatory sexual selection is also important in tropical species, with more intense sperm competition among sexually dichromatic species and among species that breed at higher densities.

show abstract

Inbreeding depression of sperm traits in the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata

Cited by 43 publications

References 57 publications

Experimental evidence for sexual selection against inbred males

Experimental evidence for sexual selection against inbred males

No evidence of inbreeding depression in sperm performance traits in wild song sparrows

Sperm morphology and evidence for sperm competition among parrots

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About