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Post-copulatory genetic matchmaking: HLA-dependent effects of cervical mucus on human sperm function
Several studies have demonstrated that women show pre-copulatory mating preferences for human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-dissimilar men. A fascinating, yet unexplored, possibility is that the ultimate mating bias towards HLA-dissimilar partners could occur after copulation, at the gamete level. Here, w...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Royal Society
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7482290/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32811307 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1682 |
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author | Jokiniemi, Annalaura Magris, Martina Ritari, Jarmo Kuusipalo, Liisa Lundgren, Tuulia Partanen, Jukka Kekäläinen, Jukka |
author_facet | Jokiniemi, Annalaura Magris, Martina Ritari, Jarmo Kuusipalo, Liisa Lundgren, Tuulia Partanen, Jukka Kekäläinen, Jukka |
author_sort | Jokiniemi, Annalaura |
collection | PubMed |
description | Several studies have demonstrated that women show pre-copulatory mating preferences for human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-dissimilar men. A fascinating, yet unexplored, possibility is that the ultimate mating bias towards HLA-dissimilar partners could occur after copulation, at the gamete level. Here, we explored this possibility by investigating whether the selection towards HLA-dissimilar partners occurs in the cervical mucus. After combining sperm and cervical mucus from multiple males and females (full factorial design), we found that sperm performance (swimming velocity, hyperactivation, and viability) was strongly influenced by the male–female combination. This indicates that sperm fertilization capability may be dependent on the compatibility between cervical mucus (female) and sperm (male). We also found that sperm viability was associated with partners' HLA dissimilarity, indicating that cervical mucus may selectively facilitate later gamete fusion between immunogenetically compatible partners. Together, these results provide novel insights into the female-mediated sperm selection (cryptic female choice) in humans and indicate that processes occurring after copulation may contribute to the mating bias towards HLA-dissimilar partners. Finally, by showing that sperm performance in cervical mucus is influenced by partners' genetic compatibility, the present findings may promote a deeper understanding of infertility. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7482290 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | The Royal Society |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-74822902020-09-21 Post-copulatory genetic matchmaking: HLA-dependent effects of cervical mucus on human sperm function Jokiniemi, Annalaura Magris, Martina Ritari, Jarmo Kuusipalo, Liisa Lundgren, Tuulia Partanen, Jukka Kekäläinen, Jukka Proc Biol Sci Evolution Several studies have demonstrated that women show pre-copulatory mating preferences for human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-dissimilar men. A fascinating, yet unexplored, possibility is that the ultimate mating bias towards HLA-dissimilar partners could occur after copulation, at the gamete level. Here, we explored this possibility by investigating whether the selection towards HLA-dissimilar partners occurs in the cervical mucus. After combining sperm and cervical mucus from multiple males and females (full factorial design), we found that sperm performance (swimming velocity, hyperactivation, and viability) was strongly influenced by the male–female combination. This indicates that sperm fertilization capability may be dependent on the compatibility between cervical mucus (female) and sperm (male). We also found that sperm viability was associated with partners' HLA dissimilarity, indicating that cervical mucus may selectively facilitate later gamete fusion between immunogenetically compatible partners. Together, these results provide novel insights into the female-mediated sperm selection (cryptic female choice) in humans and indicate that processes occurring after copulation may contribute to the mating bias towards HLA-dissimilar partners. Finally, by showing that sperm performance in cervical mucus is influenced by partners' genetic compatibility, the present findings may promote a deeper understanding of infertility. The Royal Society 2020-08-26 2020-08-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7482290/ /pubmed/32811307 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1682 Text en © 2020 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Evolution Jokiniemi, Annalaura Magris, Martina Ritari, Jarmo Kuusipalo, Liisa Lundgren, Tuulia Partanen, Jukka Kekäläinen, Jukka Post-copulatory genetic matchmaking: HLA-dependent effects of cervical mucus on human sperm function |
title | Post-copulatory genetic matchmaking: HLA-dependent effects of cervical mucus on human sperm function |
title_full | Post-copulatory genetic matchmaking: HLA-dependent effects of cervical mucus on human sperm function |
title_fullStr | Post-copulatory genetic matchmaking: HLA-dependent effects of cervical mucus on human sperm function |
title_full_unstemmed | Post-copulatory genetic matchmaking: HLA-dependent effects of cervical mucus on human sperm function |
title_short | Post-copulatory genetic matchmaking: HLA-dependent effects of cervical mucus on human sperm function |
title_sort | post-copulatory genetic matchmaking: hla-dependent effects of cervical mucus on human sperm function |
topic | Evolution |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7482290/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32811307 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1682 |
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