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80 results for “polyandry”
Social polyandry shapes sperm morphology
<p>Sexual selection is a major driver of trait variation, and the intensity of male competition for mating opportunities has been linked with sperm size across diverse taxa. Mating competition among females may also shape the evolution of sperm traits, but the interplay between female-female competition and male-male competition on sperm morphology is not well understood. We evaluated variation in sperm morphology in two species with socially polyandrous mating systems, in which females compete to mate with multiple males. Northern jacanas (<em>Jacana spinosa</em>) and wattled jacanas (<em>J. jacana</em>) vary in their degree of polyandry and sexual dimorphism, suggesting species differences in the intensity of sexual selection. We compared mean and variance in sperm head, midpiece, and tail length between species and breeding stages, because these measures have been associated with the intensity of sperm competition. We found that the species with greater polyandry, northern jacana, has sperm with longer midpieces and tails, as well as marginally lower intra-ejaculate variation in tail length. Intra-ejaculate variation was also significantly lower in copulating males than in incubating males, suggesting flexibility in sperm production as males cycle between breeding stages. Our results indicate that stronger female-female competition for mating opportunities may also shape more intense male-male competition by selecting for longer and less variable sperm traits. These findings extend frameworks developed in socially monogamous species to reveal that sperm competition may be an important evolutionary force layered atop female-female competition for mates.</p>
Microsatellite data of the paper "A putatively new ant species from the Cataglyphis cursor group displays low levels of polyandry with standard sexual reproduction"
<p>Fifty colonies of the ant Cataglyphis cursor were sampled at their nest entrance in two localities separated by 79km in the plain of Avila, west of Madrid, in July 2015 for Salobralejo (27 colonies) and in April 2014 for Castrillo de Guareña (23 colonies). Only workers near the nest entrance were collected. In Salobralejo, we also collected nine gynes at the nest entrance in three colonies. After collection, the individuals were preserved in 95% Ethanol (with 5% Tris-EDTA). From the 50 colonies sampled, we genotyped a single worker per colony for 37 colonies (Table S1). For the other 13 colonies, 114 workers were collected and genotyped to assess the colony genetic structure (86 workers from nine colonies in Salobralejo and 28 workers from four colonies in Castrillo). We also genotyped the nine gynes found in three colonies in Salobralejo. A total of 160 individuals were screened for thirteen microsatellite loci used by Eyer et al. (2023) and two supplementary loci (L76 and L3653) were amplified. The L26 locus was excluded because of amplification failures in nine individuals (18% of samples) and a highly significant Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium (<em>P</em> < 00001 for both sites). </p> <p>The file contain the locality (Salobralejo or Castrillo), the colony number and individual identification number (code), the caste (worker or gyne). For each locus, the two alleles are provided and characterised by their size. </p>
Data from: Optimal polyandry in fruit flies
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Social polyandry shapes sperm morphology
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Polyandry and non-random fertilisation maintain long-term genetic diversity in an isolated island population of adders (Vipera berus)
<p>Conservation genetic theory suggests that small and isolated populations should be subjected to reduced genetic diversity i.e., heterozygosity and allelic diversity. Our 34 years study of an isolated island population of adders (<em>Vipera berus</em>) in southern Sweden challenges this notion. Despite a lack of gene flow and a yearly mean estimated reproductive adult population size of only 65 adult adders (range 12 to 171), the population has been able to maintain high levels of heterozygosity and allelic diversity similar to that observed in two mainland populations. Even a 14-year major "bottleneck" i.e., a reduction in adult adder numbers, encompassing at least four adder generations, did not result in any reduction in the island adders' heterozygosity and allelic diversity. Female adders are polyandrous, and fertilisation is non-random, which our empirical data and modelling suggest underpinning the island adders' ability to maintain a high level of heterozygosity. Our empirical results and subsequent modelling suggest that the positive genetic effects of polyandry in combination with non-random fertilisation, often overlooked in conservation genetic analyses, deserve greater consideration when predicting long-term survival of small and isolated populations.</p>
Polyandry in Lepidoptera, ecological and evolutionary implications – preliminary review - RAW data
<p>RAW data of manuscript, entitled "Polyandry in Lepidoptera, ecological and evolutionary implications – preliminary review".</p>
Data for: The costs and benefits of polyandry in a sexually cannibalistic mantis
<p><span>Mating with more than one male often provides direct or indirect benefits to female fitness but can also increase the chance of injury and death. Costs of mating are expected to increase linearly with increasing mating number. But how such costs interact with benefits to determine the net payoff of mating multiply is not well understood. Using the highly cannibalistic Springbok mantis, Miomantis caffra, a species where females are stabbed in the abdomen by males during violent premating struggles that males initiate to avoid being cannibalised, we took an experimental approach to assess the economics of polyandry under the risk of external, male-inflicted injury. We predicted that females that mate multiply would be more likely to show abdominal injuries, have higher prereproductive mortality, produce fewer offspring, and be more likely to engage in pre-mating cannibalism to avoid unwanted matings. In line with our predictions, we found that the likelihood of abdominal injury was highest among females that mated at least once, and prereproductive death was highest among females that mated twice or three times. </span><span>Virgin females completely avoided these costs and produced some offspring parthenogenetically but not enough to provide a net benefit. </span><span>Although mating was better than not mating, there was no singularly optimal mating number: </span><span>females that mated once and three times produced similarly high numbers of offspring from the first ootheca, which resulted in an intermediate trough in offspring production at two matings. We also found little evidence that cannibalism was deployed as a mate-avoidance strategy: females consistently attacked and consumed males regardless of how many times they mated or how long they were housed with males. Our results suggest the possibility of two distinct mating strategies in M. caffra, where females either mate at a lower frequency to minimise costs or at a higher frequency to maximise benefits. We discuss possible explanations for this bimodal pattern in offspring production.</span></p>
Facultative polyandry under heat stress and the evolutionary potential for climate-driven shifts in mating systems
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Data for: The costs and benefits of polyandry in a sexually cannibalistic mantis
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Polyandry and non-random fertilisation maintain long-term genetic diversity in an isolated island population of adders (Vipera berus)
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Data from: Experimental manipulation of polyandry in a marine gastropod reveals how the number of mates affects reproductive output, offspring size, and the distribution of paternity within broods
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Data from: Mechanisms for polyandry evolution in a complex social bee
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Exploring the effects of extreme polyandry on estimates of sexual selection and reproductive success
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In the intimacy of the darkness: genetic polyandry in deep-sea luminescent lanternsharks Etmopterus spinax and Etmopterus molleri (Squaliformes, Etmopteridae)
<p>Multiple paternity seems common within elasmobranchs. Focusing on two deep-sea shark species: the velvet belly lanternshark, <em>Etmopterus spinax</em>, and the slendertail lanternshark, <em>Etmopterus molleri</em>, we inferred the paternity in 31 <em>E. spinax</em> litters from Norway (3-18 embryos per litter) and 6 <em>E. molleri</em> litters from Japan (3-6 embryos), using 21 and 10 specific microsatellites, respectively. At least two <em>E. spinax</em> litters were sired from multiple fathers each, with highly variable paternal skew (1:1 to 9:1). Conversely, no clear signal of genetic polyandry was found in <em>E. molleri</em>.</p> <p>This dataset contains the microsatellite genotypes analysed (281 <em>E. spinax</em> × 29 loci; 42 <em>E. molleri</em> × 19 loci).</p>
Data from: Paternal effects via seminal fluid and the evolution of polyandry
<p>Genetic benefits from mating with multiple males are thought to favor the evolution of polyandry. However, recent evidence suggests that nongenetic paternal effects via seminal fluid might contribute to the observed effects of polyandry on offspring performance. Here we test this hypothesis using the field cricket <i>Teleogryllus oceanicus</i>. Polyandrous females mated to three different males produced embryos with higher pre-hatching viability than did monandrous females mated with the same male three times. Pseudo-polyandrous females that obtained sperm and seminal fluid from a single male and seminal fluid from two additional males, had embryos with viabilities intermediate between monandrous and polyandrous females. Our results suggest either that ejaculate mediated paternal effects on embryo viability have both genetic and nongenetic components, or that seminal fluids transferred by castrated males provide only a subset of proteins contained within the normal ejaculate, which effects the efficacy of seminal fluid in promoting embryo viability.</p>
Data from: Polyandry and paternity affect disease resistance in eusocial wasps
<p>One of several hypotheses proposed to explain polyandry in eusocial insects is the parasite–pathogen hypothesis (PPH), in which a colony of workers with multiple patrilines due to queen polyandry is less likely to fall victim to a parasite or pathogen threat because of genetic variability of the colony's workforce. We challenged colonies with different strains of an entomopathogenic fungus to determine pathogen virulence and worker survival. We found that workers from different patrilines differed in their survival following the pathogen challenge, supporting the hypothesis that a major benefit of multiple mating by queen wasps is in disease resistance for the benefit of the colony.</p> <p>We infected isolated workers with the entomopathogenic fungus <i>Beauveria bassiana</i> and quantified their survival in the laboratory. We used five fungal strains (A–E) of <i>B. bassiana</i> for experiment 1, and then selected the two most lethal strains (A and C) for experiment 2. We used nine microsatellite markers to determine patriline membership, we analyzed microsatellite genotypes using the software Colony v2.0.6.5 (Wang 2004).</p>
Data from: Polyandry and postcopulatory sexual selection in a wild population
When females mate multiply, postcopulatory sexual selection can occur via sperm competition and cryptic female choice. Although postcopulatory selection has the potential to be a major force in driving evolution, few studies have estimated its strength in natural populations. Likewise, though polyandry is widespread across taxa and is the focus of a growing body of research, estimates of natural female mating rates are still limited in number. Microsatellites can be used to estimate the number of mates represented in females' sperm stores and the number of sires contributing to their offspring, enabling comparisons both of polyandry and of two components of postcopulatory selection: the proportion of males that mate but fail to sire offspring, and the degree of paternity skew among the males that do sire offspring. Here we estimate the number of mates and sires among wild females in the Hawaiian swordtail cricket Laupala cerasina. We compare these estimates to the actual mating rates and paternity shares we observed in a semi-natural population. Our results show that postcopulatory sexual selection operates strongly in this species: wild females mated with an average minimum of 3.6 males but used the sperm from only 58% of them. Furthermore, among the males that did sire offspring, paternity was significantly skewed. These patterns were similar to those observed in the field enclosure, where females mated with an average of 5.7 males and used the sperm from 62% of their mates, with paternity significantly skewed among the sires.
Data from: No selection for change in polyandry under experimental evolution
What drives mating system variation is a major question in evolutionary biology. Female multiple mating (polyandry) has diverse evolutionary consequences, and there are many potential benefits and costs of polyandry. However, our understanding of its evolution is biased towards studies enforcing monandry in polyandrous species. What drives and maintains variation in polyandry between individuals, genotypes, populations and species remains poorly understood. Genetic variation in polyandry may be actively maintained by selection, or arise by chance if polyandry is selectively neutral. In Drosophila pseudoobscura, there is genetic variation in polyandry between and within populations. We used isofemale lines to found replicate populations with high or low initial levels of polyandry, and tracked polyandry under experimental evolution over seven generations. Polyandry remained relatively stable, reflecting the starting frequencies of the experimental populations. There were no clear fitness differences between high versus low polyandry genotypes, and there was no signature of balancing selection. We confirmed these patterns in direct comparisons between evolved and ancestral females, and found no consequences of polyandry for female fecundity. The absence of differential selection even when initiating populations with major differences in polyandry casts some doubt on the importance of polyandry for female fitness.
Data from: Association of polyandry and sex-ratio drive prevalence in natural populations of Drosophila neotestacea
Selfish genetic elements bias their own transmission to the next generation, even at the expense of the fitness of their carrier. Sex-ratio (SR) meiotic drive occurs when an X-chromosome causes Y-bearing sperm to die during male spermatogenesis, so that it is passed on to all of the male's offspring, which are all daughters. How SR is maintained as a stable polymorphism in the absence of genetic suppressors of drive is unknown. Here, we investigate the potential for the female remating rate to affect SR dynamics in natural populations, using the fly Drosophila neotestacea. In controlled laboratory conditions, females from populations where SR is rare mate more often than females from populations where SR is common. Furthermore, only when males mate multiply does the average fertility of SR males relative to wild-type males decrease to a level that can prevent SR from spreading. Our results suggest that differences in the female mating rate among populations may contribute to SR dynamics in the wild, and thus also affect the outcome of this intragenomic conflict. In line with this, we also present evidence of a localized population crash due to SR that may have resulted from habitat fragmentation along with a reduced mating rate.
Data from: Polyandry and polygyny in a social rodent: an integrative perspective based on social organization, copulations, and genetics
Animal mating systems have fascinated biologists for thousands of years. Ways to describe amating systeminclude determining social organization, observing copulations, or using genetics to assign parentage. Social organization can be difficult to quantify, however, documentation of copulations is often challenging, many copulations do not produce offspring, and genetic variation is sometimes minimal. Here we use data from a 7-year study of wild white-tailed prairie dogs (WTPDs, Cynomys leucurus) living in Colorado USA to estimate the frequencies of polyandry (i.e., copulation with ≥2 males) and polygyny (i.e., copulation with ≥2 females) from three independent approaches: (1) determination of the number of males and females living in the same territory (social organization); (2) observations of copulations; and (3) genetic assignments of paternity from seven polymorphic microsatellites. We predicted that our three approaches would yield similar estimates of polyandry and polygyny. Because a WTPD female's period of sexual receptivity each spring is limited to several hours on a single day, we also predicted that frequencies of polyandry and polygyny would be lower for WTPDs than for animals with longer periods of receptivity. Our results did not support these predictions. For polyandry, observations of copulations and genetics indicated similar overall percentages (27%), but social organization indicated a much lower percentage (2%). For polygyny, observations of copulations indicated the highest overall percentage (84%), then social organization (59%), then genetics (46%). All three approaches showed striking annual variation in the frequencies of WTPD polyandry and polygyny. Long-term studies that integrate behavioral and genetic insights can provide a detailed view of a mating system, but feasibility will depend on ease of capture, visibility of copulations, length of mating season, research objectives, and genetic variation.
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