An Advantage for Young Sperm in the House Cricket<i>Acheta domesticus</i>

Reinhardt, Klaus; Siva‐Jothy, Michael T.

doi:10.1086/430010

Cited by 58 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…This is supported by data from other poeciliids showing that sperm number is more important than sperm velocity under post-copulatory sexual selection (an effect of sperm age; e.g. [106, 107]). Additionally, unlike studies in other poecillids (see [43]), sperm velocity was significantly negatively affected by a restricted diet, albeit that the effect size was small (Hedges’ g = 0.07).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

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Are sexually selected traits affected by a poor environment early in life?

2016

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BackgroundChallenging conditions experienced early in life, such as a restricted diet, can detrimentally affect key life-history traits. Individuals can reduce these costs by delaying their sexual maturation, albeit at the price of the later onset of breeding, to eventually reach the same adult size as individuals that grow up in a benevolent environment. Delayed maturation can, however, still lead to other detrimental morphological and physiological changes that become apparent later in adulthood (e.g. shorter lifespan, faster senescence). In general, research focuses on the naturally selected costs of a poor early diet. In mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki), males with limited food intake early in life delay maturation to reach a similar adult body size to their well-fed counterparts (‘catch-up growth’). Here we tested whether a poor early diet is costly due to the reduced expression of sexually selected male characters, namely genital size and ejaculate traits.ResultsWe found that a male’s diet early in life significantly influenced his sperm reserves and sperm replenishment rate. Shortly after maturation males with a restricted early diet had significantly lower sperm reserves and slower replenishment rates than control diet males, but this dietary difference was no longer detectable in older males.ConclusionsAlthough delaying maturation to reach the same body size as well fed juveniles can ameliorate some costs of a poor start in life, our findings suggest that costs might still arise because of sexual selection against these males. It should be noted, however, that the observed effects are modest (Hedges’ g = 0.20–0.36), and the assumption that lower sperm production translates into a decline in fitness under sperm competition remains unconfirmed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-016-0838-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

“…The other is that the sperm of older males deteriorates because it has spent more time in storage (an effect of sperm age; e.g. [106, 107]). In our study all sperm velocity measures were obtained from sperm that were at most three days old, so the observed lower sperm velocity is most likely due to an effect of male rather than sperm age.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are sexually selected traits affected by a poor environment early in life?

2016

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“…Male crayfish may adjust sperm viability by means of seminal fluids secreted by vasa deferentia during sperm transit, which may function in nourishing and conserving sperm during and after ejaculation, thereby influencing viability of sperm contained in the spermatophores. Alternatively, male crayfish can have sperm in their vasa deferentia that vary in age, as for example occurs in the cricket Acheta domesticus [64]; in this case, males could be able to allocate their more valuable young viable sperm to copulations that are likely to provide the greater reproductive payoff, and this may occur when mating with females of their own population [58]. Of course, sperm viability could also be affected by the female’s reproductive tract [65], but in A. italicus spermatophores are attached externally to female body and sperm contained in spermatophores does not come in contact with the female genital tract (see Introduction).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sperm Traits Negatively Covary with Size and Asymmetry of a Secondary Sexual Trait in a Freshwater Crayfish

et al. 2012

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In species where females mate promiscuously, the reproductive success of males depends both on their ability to acquire mates (pre-copulatory sexual selection) and ability of their ejaculates to outcompete those of other males (post-copulatory sexual selection). Sperm competition theory predicts a negative relationship between investment in body traits favouring mate acquisition (secondary sexual characters, SSCs) and investment in ejaculate size or quality, due to the inherent costs of sperm production. In contrast, the phenotype-linked fertility hypothesis posits that male fertilizing efficiency is reliably reflected by the phenotypic expression of male SSCs, allowing females to obtain direct benefits by selecting more ornamented males as copulation partners. In this study, we investigated the relationships between male SSCs and size and quality (viability and longevity) of ejaculates allocated to females in mating trials of the freshwater crayfish Austropotamobius italicus. We showed that the relative size of male weapons, the chelae, was negatively related to ejaculate size, and that chelae asymmetry, resulting from regeneration of lost chelipeds, negatively covaried with sperm longevity. Moreover, males allocated more viable sperm to mates from their own rather than different stream of origin. Our findings thus suggest that, according to sperm competition theory, pre-copulatory sexual selection for large weapons used in male fighting may counteract post-copulatory sperm competition in this crayfish species, and that investment in cheliped regeneration may impair ejaculate quality.

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“…Sperm aging has also been linked to reduced reproductive output in such taxa as marine invertebrates, Drosophila spp., and amphibians (3,9). However, with the exception of several insect studies (10)(11)(12), this link has only rarely been addressed from an evolutionary perspective.…”

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confidence: 99%

Multiple deleterious effects of experimentally aged sperm in a monogamous bird

White

Wagner

Helfenstein³

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Sperm aging is known to be detrimental to reproductive performance. However, this apparently general phenomenon has seldom been studied in an evolutionary context. The negative impact of sperm aging on parental fitness should constitute a strong selective pressure for adaptations to avoid its effects. We studied the impact of sperm aging on black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla), a monogamous seabird. Kittiwakes comprise a model system because (i) of evidence that females eject their mates' sperm to prevent fertilization by sperm that would be old and degraded by the time of fertilization and result in reduced reproductive performance and (ii) the lack of extra-pair fertilization in this species makes cryptic female choice an unlikely explanation of postcopulatory sperm ejection by females. We experimentally manipulated the age of the sperm fertilizing kittiwake eggs by fitting males with anti-insemination rings for variable periods of time preceding egg-laying. We found evidence that sperm aging negatively affected four sequential stages of reproduction: fertilization potential, rate of embryonic development, embryonic mortality, and chick condition at hatching. These results may be produced by a continuum of a single process of sperm aging that differentially affects various aspects of development, depending on the degree of damage incurred to the spermatozoa. The marked impact of sperm age on female fitness may thus drive postcopulatory sperm ejection by females. These results provide experimental evidence of deleterious effects of sperm aging on a nondomestic vertebrate, underlining its taxonomic generality and its potential to select for a wide array of adaptations. egg development ͉ fertility ͉ reproduction ͉ sperm competition ͉ sperm senescence

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An Advantage for Young Sperm in the House CricketAcheta domesticus

Cited by 58 publications

References 34 publications

Are sexually selected traits affected by a poor environment early in life?

Are sexually selected traits affected by a poor environment early in life?

Sperm Traits Negatively Covary with Size and Asymmetry of a Secondary Sexual Trait in a Freshwater Crayfish

Multiple deleterious effects of experimentally aged sperm in a monogamous bird

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