Sperm morphology of the Rattini – are the interspecific differences due to variation in intensity of intermale sperm competition?

Pahl, Tessa; McLennan, Hanna J.; Wang, Yun; Achmadi, Anang S.; Rowe, Kevin C.; Aplin, Ken; Breed, W.

doi:10.1071/rd17431

Cited by 18 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…There seems to be coevolution between sperm form and sperm size. Thus, an increase in sperm head complexity is accompanied by an increase in total sperm length, as originally pointed out by our group (Roldan, Gomendio, & Vitullo, ), and both are coevolving under the influence of sperm competition (Breed et al., ; McLennan et al., ; Pahl et al., ).…”

Section: Diversity In Sperm Numbers and Morphology And Underlying Sesupporting

confidence: 68%

“…the so‐called hook) also shows that both its length and angle are influenced by sperm competition (Immler, Moore, Breed, & Birkhead, ; Varea‐Sánchez, Tourmente, Bastir, & Roldan, ). A series of recent comprehensive analyses of Australian rodents, a group in which several appendices have evolved in the sperm head, showed that several head parameters associate with levels of sperm competition (Breed et al., ; McLennan, Lüpold, Smissen, Rowe, & Breed, ; Pahl et al., ).…”

Section: Diversity In Sperm Numbers and Morphology And Underlying Sementioning

confidence: 99%

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Sperm competition and the evolution of sperm form and function in mammals

Roldán

2019

Reprod Domestic Animals

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Sperm competition is a powerful selective force that has influenced many reproductive traits in males and females although additional evolutionary explanations may help to understand the diversity of mammalian reproduction. Sperm morphology varies considerably in mammals with extreme examples in several rodent lineages in which a wide range of sizes and complex head morphologies have been identified. Mammalian spermatozoa also differ in function, with swimming velocity and trajectory showing much divergence. Underlying processes mediating function have received little attention so far, but differences in timing and proportion of sperm undergoing capacitation or acrosomal exocytosis may be related to variation in signalling processes. Furthermore, energy required for sperm functions (such as motion, signalling and overall maintenance of cell integrity) can be produced and consumed, following different patterns among species and this could be the result of several selective forces. A more thorough understanding of the diversity in structure and function of sperm cells, and underlying selective forces, may help us develop better methods to assess them taking into account particulars and generalities of sperm form and performance. Such tests could then become more reliable in estimations of the impact of cryopreservation or effect of changes in the environment and their relevance for fertility.

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Section: Diversity In Sperm Numbers and Morphology And Underlying Sesupporting

confidence: 68%

Section: Diversity In Sperm Numbers and Morphology And Underlying Sementioning

confidence: 99%

Sperm competition and the evolution of sperm form and function in mammals

Roldán

2019

Reprod Domestic Animals

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“…The coevolution of male and female reproductive proteins may be associated with the eventual development of barriers to fertilization, reproductive isolation, and subsequent speciation ( Swanson and Vacquier 2002 ). There is substantial divergence in sperm morphology between closely related murine species (e.g., Breed 2000 ; McLennan et al 2017 ; Pahl et al 2018 ), which may contribute to the rapid evolution of prezygotic isolation between populations. Accelerated evolution, or increased positive selection, in reproductive genes in murine rodents may be linked, in part, to the rapid speciation of murines in both allopatry, and via ecological niche partitioning in spatially limited island systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular Evolution of Ecological Specialisation: Genomic Insights from the Diversification of Murine Rodents

Roycroft

Achmadi

Callahan

et al. 2021

Genome Biology and Evolution

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Adaptive radiations are characterised by the diversification and ecological differentiation of species, and replicated cases of this process provide natural experiments for understanding the repeatability and pace of molecular evolution. During adaptive radiation, genes related to ecological specialisation may be subject to recurrent positive directional selection. However, it is not clear to what extent patterns of lineage-specific ecological specialisation (including phenotypic convergence) are correlated with shared signatures of molecular evolution. To test this, we sequenced whole exomes from a phylogenetically dispersed sample of 38 murine rodent species, a group characterised by multiple, nested adaptive radiations comprising extensive ecological and phenotypic diversity. We found that genes associated with immunity, reproduction, diet, digestion and taste have been subject to pervasive positive selection during the diversification of murine rodents. We also found a significant correlation between genome-wide positive selection and dietary specialisation, with a higher proportion of positively selected codon sites in derived dietary forms (i.e. carnivores and herbivores) than in ancestral forms (i.e. omnivores). Despite striking convergent evolution of skull morphology and dentition in two distantly related worm-eating specialists, we did not detect more genes with shared signatures of positive or relaxed selection than in a non-convergent species comparison. While a small number of the genes we detected can be incidentally linked to craniofacial morphology or diet, protein-coding regions are unlikely to be the primary genetic basis of this complex convergent phenotype. Our results suggest a link between positive selection and derived ecological phenotypes, and highlight specific genes and general functional categories that may have played an integral role in the extensive and rapid diversification of murine rodents.

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“…The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted December 7, 2020. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.05.413120 doi: bioRxiv preprint hooks that vary in their length and curvature [3,[7][8][9]. For sperm head designs that are complex, identifying and quantifying informative morphological features and, thus, their functional significance has been an ongoing challenge across taxa [10][11][12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The social shape of sperm: Using an integrative machine-learning approach to examine sperm ultrastructure and collective motility

Hook

Yang

Campanello

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Sperm are one of the most morphologically diverse cell types in nature, yet they also exhibit remarkable behavioral variation, including the formation of collective groups of cells that swim together for motility or transport through the female reproductive tract. Here we take advantage of the natural variation in sperm traits observed across Peromyscus mice to test the hypothesis that the morphology of the rodent sperm head influences their sperm aggregation behavior. Using machine learning and traditional morphometric approaches to quantify and analyze their complex shapes, we show that the elongation of the sperm head is the most distinguishing morphological trait in these rodents and, as predicted, significantly associates with collective sperm movements obtained from in vitro observations. We then successfully use neural network analysis to predict the size and proportion of sperm aggregates from sperm head morphology and show that species whose sperm feature relatively wider heads aggregate more often and form larger groups, providing support for the theoretical prediction that an adhesive region around the equatorial region of the sperm head mediates these unique gametic interactions. Together these findings advance our understanding of how even subtle variation in sperm design can drive differences in sperm function and performance.Subject AreasEvolution, Cellular Biology, Behavior

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Sperm morphology of the Rattini – are the interspecific differences due to variation in intensity of intermale sperm competition?

Cited by 18 publications

References 64 publications

Sperm competition and the evolution of sperm form and function in mammals

Sperm competition and the evolution of sperm form and function in mammals

Molecular Evolution of Ecological Specialisation: Genomic Insights from the Diversification of Murine Rodents

The social shape of sperm: Using an integrative machine-learning approach to examine sperm ultrastructure and collective motility

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