Sperm competition

Radwan, Jacek; Witaliński, Wojciech

doi:10.1038/352671b0

Cited by 28 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…In the present study we found that males from monogamous and polygamous lines did not differ in the frequency of mating or in survival. This suggests that decreased competitiveness of monogamous lines, coupled with their lowered harmfulness to females, might result from a reduction in transfer of seminal fluids, which in acarid mites seem to play a role in removal or incapacitation of sperm deposited in spermatheca (Radwan and Witaliń ski 1991). Whether these substances harm females remains to be investigated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution Under Relaxed Sexual Conflict in the Bulb Mite Rhizoglyphus Robini

Tilszer¹,

Antoszczyk²,

Ssaek³

et al. 2006

Evolution

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Abstract. The experimental evolution under different levels of sexual conflict have been used to demonstrate antagonistic coevolution in muscids, but among other taxa a similar approach has not been employed. Here, we describe the results of 37 generations of evolution under either experimentally enforced monogamy or polygamy in the bulb mite Rhizoglyphus robini. Three replicates were maintained for each treatment. Monogamy makes male and female interests congruent; thus selection is expected to decrease harmfulness of males to their partners. Our results were consistent with this prediction in that females from monogamous lines achieved lower fecundity when housed with males from polygamous lines. Fecundity of polygamous females was not affected by mating system under which their partners evolved, which suggests that they were more resistant to male-induced harm. As predicted by the antagonistic coevolution hypothesis, the decrease in harmfulness of monogamous males was accompanied by a decline in reproductive competitiveness. In contrast, female fecundity and embryonic viability, which were not expected to be correlated with male harmfulness, did not differ between monogamous and polygamous lines. None of the fitness components assayed differed between individuals obtained from crosses between parents from the same line and those obtained from crosses between parents from different lines within the same mating system. This indicates that inbreeding depression did not confound our results. However, interpretation of our results is complicated by the fact that both males and females from monogamous lines evolved smaller body size compared to individuals from polygamous lines. Although a decrease in reproductive performance of males from monogamous lines was still significant when body size was taken into account, we were not able to separate the effects of male body size and mating system in their influence on fecundity of their female partners.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution Under Relaxed Sexual Conflict in the Bulb Mite Rhizoglyphus Robini

Tilszer¹,

Antoszczyk²,

Ssaek³

et al. 2006

Evolution

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“…These males mated with a pseudopolyandrous female either as her first mate, and then paired with a female from the monogamous group, or as their last mate, after being mated with a monogamous female. The spermcompetition success of the latter group was related to the ability of males to assure the advantage of their own sperm over that of the preceding males (see Radwan & Witaliń ski (1991) and Radwan (1997) for the details of the biology of reproduction), whereas with the former group it was related to the ability of males to defend their own sperm against the sperm of the female's subsequent partners. We will thus refer to these groups as 'offensive' and 'defensive', respectively.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Good genes and the maternal effects of polyandry on offspring reproductive success in the bulb mite

Kozielska

Krzemińska

Radwan

2004

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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Genetic benefits are potentially the most robust explanation of the controversial issue of evolutionary maintenance of polyandry, but the unambiguous demonstration of such benefits has been hindered by the possibility of their confusion with maternal effects. Previous research has shown that polyandrous bulb mite females produce daughters with higher fecundity than monandrous females. Here, we investigate whether this effect arises because polyandrous females invest more in their offspring, or because their offspring inherit 'good genes' from their fathers. Females were mated with either one or four (different) males. However, by sterilizing three of the four males with ionizing radiation, we eliminated any chance of sexual selection (in the polyandrous treatment) so that any differences in the female mating regimes must have been owing to maternal effects. Polyandry had no significant effect on daughter fecundity, thus indicating that any previously documented effects must have been genetic. This was further supported by a significant association between fathers' offensive sperm-competitive ability and the fecundity of their daughters. The association with fathers' sperm defensive ability was not significant, and neither was the association between fathers' sperm competitiveness and sons' reproductive success. However, sons of polyandrous females had lower reproductive success than sons of monandrous females. This shows that the maternal effects of polyandry should be taken into account whenever its costs and benefits are being considered.

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“…Consequently, male success in sperm competition can be a major determinant of male reproductive success, and traits affecting sperm competitiveness can be expected to be under strong directional selection. Such traits include sperm number (eg, Mller, 1989), spermoffensive traits, such as modified genitalia or seminal fluids that allow removal or incapacitation of sperm inseminated earlier (eg, Waage, 1979;Radwan and Witaliń ski, 1991;Clark et al, 1995), and traits such as copulatory plugs that protect own sperm from manipulation by other males (eg, Devine, 1975;Birkhead and Mller, 1998;Simmons, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of inbreeding and heritability of sperm competition success in the bulb mite Rhizoglyphus robini

2005

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Sperm competition is a potent evolutionary force shaping the reproductive biology of most animal species. Here, we estimated the heritability of sperm competition success in the promiscuous bulb mite Rhizoglyphus robini. Sperm competition success was measured with the sterile male technique as the proportion of eggs fertilised by the second of three males mated with a single female. Sperm competition success responded significantly to selection. The heritability estimated from the response to five generations of selection was 0.13. We also estimated the effect of inbreeding on sperm competition success. Males produced by sib-mating (F ¼ 0.25) had a significantly lower sperm competition success than outbred males. The estimated coefficient of inbreeding depression was 0.53. Such high inbreeding depression together with moderately low heritability is consistent with the view that sperm competitive ability is under strong directional selection and strongly influences the reproductive success of males.

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Sperm competition

Cited by 28 publications

References 4 publications

Evolution Under Relaxed Sexual Conflict in the Bulb Mite Rhizoglyphus Robini

Evolution Under Relaxed Sexual Conflict in the Bulb Mite Rhizoglyphus Robini

Good genes and the maternal effects of polyandry on offspring reproductive success in the bulb mite

Effect of inbreeding and heritability of sperm competition success in the bulb mite Rhizoglyphus robini

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