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Sperm competition in yellow dung flies: No consistent effect of sperm size

The male competition for fertilization that results from female multiple mating promotes the evolution of increased sperm numbers and can impact sperm morphology, with theory predicting that longer sperm can at times be advantageous during sperm competition. If so, males with longer sperm should sir...

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Autores principales: Laugen, Ane T., Hosken, David J., Reinhold, Klaus, Schwarzenbach, Gioia A., Hoeck, Paquita E. A., Bussière, Luc F., Blanckenhorn, Wolf U., Lüpold, Stefan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9805187/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35972882
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jeb.14073
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author Laugen, Ane T.
Hosken, David J.
Reinhold, Klaus
Schwarzenbach, Gioia A.
Hoeck, Paquita E. A.
Bussière, Luc F.
Blanckenhorn, Wolf U.
Lüpold, Stefan
author_facet Laugen, Ane T.
Hosken, David J.
Reinhold, Klaus
Schwarzenbach, Gioia A.
Hoeck, Paquita E. A.
Bussière, Luc F.
Blanckenhorn, Wolf U.
Lüpold, Stefan
author_sort Laugen, Ane T.
collection PubMed
description The male competition for fertilization that results from female multiple mating promotes the evolution of increased sperm numbers and can impact sperm morphology, with theory predicting that longer sperm can at times be advantageous during sperm competition. If so, males with longer sperm should sire more offspring than competitors with shorter sperm. Few studies have directly tested this prediction, and findings are inconsistent. Here we assessed whether longer sperm provide a competitive advantage in the yellow dung fly (Scathophaga stercoraria; Diptera: Scathophagidae). Initially, we let brothers with different temperature‐mediated mean sperm lengths compete – thus minimizing confounding effects of genetic background – and found no clear advantage of longer sperm. We then used flies from lines subjected to bidirectional selection on phenoloxidase activity that had shown correlated evolutionary responses in sperm and female spermathecal duct lengths. This experiment also yielded no main effect of sperm size on siring success. Instead, there was a trend for a shorter‐sperm advantage, but only when competing in females with longer spermathecal ducts. Our data corroborated many previously reported findings (last‐male precedence, effects of copula duration and body size), suggesting our failure to find sperm size effects is not inherently due to our experimental protocols. We conclude that longer sperm are not competitively superior in yellow dung flies under most circumstances, and that, consistent with previous work, in this species competitive fertilization success is primarily determined by the relative numbers of sperm competing.
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spelling pubmed-98051872023-01-06 Sperm competition in yellow dung flies: No consistent effect of sperm size Laugen, Ane T. Hosken, David J. Reinhold, Klaus Schwarzenbach, Gioia A. Hoeck, Paquita E. A. Bussière, Luc F. Blanckenhorn, Wolf U. Lüpold, Stefan J Evol Biol Research Articles The male competition for fertilization that results from female multiple mating promotes the evolution of increased sperm numbers and can impact sperm morphology, with theory predicting that longer sperm can at times be advantageous during sperm competition. If so, males with longer sperm should sire more offspring than competitors with shorter sperm. Few studies have directly tested this prediction, and findings are inconsistent. Here we assessed whether longer sperm provide a competitive advantage in the yellow dung fly (Scathophaga stercoraria; Diptera: Scathophagidae). Initially, we let brothers with different temperature‐mediated mean sperm lengths compete – thus minimizing confounding effects of genetic background – and found no clear advantage of longer sperm. We then used flies from lines subjected to bidirectional selection on phenoloxidase activity that had shown correlated evolutionary responses in sperm and female spermathecal duct lengths. This experiment also yielded no main effect of sperm size on siring success. Instead, there was a trend for a shorter‐sperm advantage, but only when competing in females with longer spermathecal ducts. Our data corroborated many previously reported findings (last‐male precedence, effects of copula duration and body size), suggesting our failure to find sperm size effects is not inherently due to our experimental protocols. We conclude that longer sperm are not competitively superior in yellow dung flies under most circumstances, and that, consistent with previous work, in this species competitive fertilization success is primarily determined by the relative numbers of sperm competing. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-08-16 2022-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9805187/ /pubmed/35972882 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jeb.14073 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society for Evolutionary Biology. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Laugen, Ane T.
Hosken, David J.
Reinhold, Klaus
Schwarzenbach, Gioia A.
Hoeck, Paquita E. A.
Bussière, Luc F.
Blanckenhorn, Wolf U.
Lüpold, Stefan
Sperm competition in yellow dung flies: No consistent effect of sperm size
title Sperm competition in yellow dung flies: No consistent effect of sperm size
title_full Sperm competition in yellow dung flies: No consistent effect of sperm size
title_fullStr Sperm competition in yellow dung flies: No consistent effect of sperm size
title_full_unstemmed Sperm competition in yellow dung flies: No consistent effect of sperm size
title_short Sperm competition in yellow dung flies: No consistent effect of sperm size
title_sort sperm competition in yellow dung flies: no consistent effect of sperm size
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9805187/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35972882
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jeb.14073
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