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Immune-Mediated Change in the Expression of a Sexual Trait Predicts Offspring Survival in the Wild

BACKGROUND: The “good genes” theory of sexual selection postulates that females choose mates that will improve their offspring's fitness through the inheritance of paternal genes. In spite of the attention that this hypothesis has given rise to, the empirical evidence remains sparse, mostly bec...

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Autores principales: Chargé, Rémi, Sorci, Gabriele, Hingrat, Yves, Lacroix, Frédéric, Saint Jalme, Michel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3184954/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21984912
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025305
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author Chargé, Rémi
Sorci, Gabriele
Hingrat, Yves
Lacroix, Frédéric
Saint Jalme, Michel
author_facet Chargé, Rémi
Sorci, Gabriele
Hingrat, Yves
Lacroix, Frédéric
Saint Jalme, Michel
author_sort Chargé, Rémi
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The “good genes” theory of sexual selection postulates that females choose mates that will improve their offspring's fitness through the inheritance of paternal genes. In spite of the attention that this hypothesis has given rise to, the empirical evidence remains sparse, mostly because of the difficulties of controlling for the many environmental factors that may covary with both the paternal phenotype and offspring fitness. Here, we tested the hypothesis that offspring sired by males of a preferred phenotype should have better survival in an endangered bird, the houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata undulata). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We tested if natural and experimentally-induced variation in courtship display (following an inflammatory challenge) predicts the survival of offspring. Chicks were produced by artificial insemination of females, ensuring that any effect on survival could only arise from the transfer of paternal genes. One hundred and twenty offspring were equipped with radio transmitters, and their survival monitored in the wild for a year. This allowed assessment of the potential benefits of paternal genes in a natural setting, where birds experience the whole range of environmental hazards. Although natural variation in sire courtship display did not predict offspring survival, sires that withstood the inflammatory insult and maintained their courtship activity sired offspring with the best survival upon release. CONCLUSIONS: This finding is relevant both to enlighten the debate on “good genes” sexual selection and the management of supportive breeding programs.
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spelling pubmed-31849542011-10-07 Immune-Mediated Change in the Expression of a Sexual Trait Predicts Offspring Survival in the Wild Chargé, Rémi Sorci, Gabriele Hingrat, Yves Lacroix, Frédéric Saint Jalme, Michel PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: The “good genes” theory of sexual selection postulates that females choose mates that will improve their offspring's fitness through the inheritance of paternal genes. In spite of the attention that this hypothesis has given rise to, the empirical evidence remains sparse, mostly because of the difficulties of controlling for the many environmental factors that may covary with both the paternal phenotype and offspring fitness. Here, we tested the hypothesis that offspring sired by males of a preferred phenotype should have better survival in an endangered bird, the houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata undulata). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We tested if natural and experimentally-induced variation in courtship display (following an inflammatory challenge) predicts the survival of offspring. Chicks were produced by artificial insemination of females, ensuring that any effect on survival could only arise from the transfer of paternal genes. One hundred and twenty offspring were equipped with radio transmitters, and their survival monitored in the wild for a year. This allowed assessment of the potential benefits of paternal genes in a natural setting, where birds experience the whole range of environmental hazards. Although natural variation in sire courtship display did not predict offspring survival, sires that withstood the inflammatory insult and maintained their courtship activity sired offspring with the best survival upon release. CONCLUSIONS: This finding is relevant both to enlighten the debate on “good genes” sexual selection and the management of supportive breeding programs. Public Library of Science 2011-10-03 /pmc/articles/PMC3184954/ /pubmed/21984912 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025305 Text en Chargé et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Chargé, Rémi
Sorci, Gabriele
Hingrat, Yves
Lacroix, Frédéric
Saint Jalme, Michel
Immune-Mediated Change in the Expression of a Sexual Trait Predicts Offspring Survival in the Wild
title Immune-Mediated Change in the Expression of a Sexual Trait Predicts Offspring Survival in the Wild
title_full Immune-Mediated Change in the Expression of a Sexual Trait Predicts Offspring Survival in the Wild
title_fullStr Immune-Mediated Change in the Expression of a Sexual Trait Predicts Offspring Survival in the Wild
title_full_unstemmed Immune-Mediated Change in the Expression of a Sexual Trait Predicts Offspring Survival in the Wild
title_short Immune-Mediated Change in the Expression of a Sexual Trait Predicts Offspring Survival in the Wild
title_sort immune-mediated change in the expression of a sexual trait predicts offspring survival in the wild
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3184954/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21984912
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025305
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