Both sexes pay a cost of reproduction in a frog with biparental care

Dugas, Matthew B.; Wamelink, Caitlin N.; Richards‐Zawacki, Corinne L.

doi:10.1111/bij.12461

Cited by 20 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 45 publications

(101 reference statements)

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“…Experimental studies corroborate the general idea that brood size has an optimum and reproducing more reduces fitness (Lindén & Møller 1989; Dijkstra et al 1990; Koskela 1998; Aubret et al 2003; Koivula et al 2003; Santos & Nakagawa 2012; Aloise King et al 2013; Thomson et al 2014; Dugas et al 2015), though the cost can be paid primarily by offspring, mothers, or fathers (in species with contributing males). Though a representative review of the relevant literature is beyond the scope of this article, the following examples illustrate the cost of enlarged brood size in two vertebrate species.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 61%

The Maintenance of Sex and David Lack’s Principle

Dagg¹

2016

Preprint

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Combining George C. Williams' idea that evolutionary constraints prevent asexual mutants from arising more frequently in low fecundity organisms, like mammals and birds, with an earlier one by David Lack that the brood size of these organisms has an optimum, and producing larger broods reduces their fitness, leads to a novel hypothesis about the maintenance of sex in them. All else equal, the eggs of an asexual mutant female should simply start developing without fertilisation, and there is no reason to assume that they would stop doing so after the optimal number of offspring has been produced. Without a way to control their reproductive output, asexual mutants should overreproduce and suffer a cost of doing so. Experimental studies suggest that the cost of enlarged broods could limit the advantage of asexual mutants considerably. Moreover, research discovered that increased reproductive effort reduces immune functions of low fecundity organisms. This offers a surprising synthesis between Williams' constraint and Hamilton's parasite hypothesis on maintaining sex in low fecundity organisms: Compromised immune functions of asexual hosts may render them susceptible rather than adaptation on the side of parasites to overcome host resistance.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 61%

The Maintenance of Sex and David Lack’s Principle

Dagg¹

2016

Preprint

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“…Regardless of any causal links that may exist between reduced energy storage and increased parasite loads, our results show that both occur as costs of reproduction for male and female brown anoles. This is broadly consistent with the theoretical prediction that total reproductive investment should be comparable for males and females, and it supports the emerging view that males and females share many of the same costs of reproduction (Fedorka et al ., ; Paukku & Kotiaho, ; Penn & Smith, ; Hoffman et al ., ; Cox, ; Dugas et al ., ). The present study also presents a new experimental framework for directly comparing costs of reproduction between sexes by using the same measures of cost and manipulations of total reproductive investment over the same period of time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, brood manipulations only address a single aspect of reproductive investment, and their generality is unclear beyond the relatively small proportion of species that provide biparental care (Cox, ). Other studies have directly compared the costs of reproduction between the sexes by manipulating mating frequency or the duration of exposure to mates (Kotiaho & Simmons, ; Fedorka, Zuk & Mousseau, ; Dugas, Wamelink & Richards‐Zawacki, ), although the costs associated solely with mating likely represent different fractions of total reproductive investment for each sex. An ideal approach would manipulate total reproductive investment and directly compare the magnitude of its associated costs between the sexes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Both sexes suffer increased parasitism and reduced energy storage as costs of reproduction in the brown anole,Anolis sagrei

Reedy

Cox

Chung

et al. 2015

Biol. J. Linn. Soc.

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Sexual selection theory proposes that males suffer reduced immune function and increased parasitism as costs of expressing sexual signals. Life-history theory proposes that females suffer the same costs because of inherent trade-offs between reproduction and self-maintenance. Mechanistically, each theory invokes an energetic tradeoff, although few experiments have directly compared these costs of reproduction between the sexes as a result of fundamental sex differences in the nature of reproductive investment and a tendency for each theory to focus on a single sex. To test whether males and females experience comparable costs of reproduction in terms of energetics, immune function, and parasitism, we used gonadectomy to eliminate most aspects of reproductive investment in wild brown anole lizards (Anolis sagrei) of both sexes. We compared these nonreproductive males and females with intact, reproductive controls with respect to stored energy (fat bodies), immune function (swelling response to phytohemagglutinin), and the prevalence and intensity of infection by four types of parasite (gastric nematodes, intestinal nematodes, faecal coccidia, and ectoparasitic mites). Gonadectomized anoles experienced dramatic increases in fat storage that were accompanied by decreases in the prevalence of intestinal nematodes and in the intensity of coccidia infection. These costs of reproduction were comparable between males and females, although neither sex exhibited the predicted increase in immune function after gonadectomy. Our results suggest that, despite fundamental sex differences in the nature of reproductive investment, both male and female anoles experience similar costs of reproduction with respect to energy storage and some aspects of parasitism.

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“…; Dugas et al. ). A series of laboratory‐based, experimental, dichotomous preference studies with populations of O. pumilio in Bocas del Toro, Panama, have found that females generally prefer to associate with males from their native population and color morph (e.g., Summers et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Females are the choosy sex in O. pumilio, and this strategy may have evolved due to the extensive parental care exhibited by O. pumilio, which includes female egg transport and daily tadpole feeding (Haase & Pr€ ohl 2002;Savage 2002). Such behaviors may increase energy investments by females and lead to a shorter life span (Trivers 1972;Siddiqi et al 2004;Dugas et al 2015). A series of laboratory-based, experimental, dichotomous preference studies with populations of O. pumilio in Bocas del Toro, Panama, have found that females generally prefer to associate with males from their native population and color morph (e.g., Summers et al 1999;Graham-Reynolds & Fitzpatrick 2007;Maan & Cummings 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Color Assortative Mating in a Mainland Population of the Poison Frog Oophaga pumilio

2016

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Assortative mating is a reproductive strategy used by a diversity of animals, in which individuals choose a mate that shares similar characteristics. This mating strategy has the potential to promote the evolution of various sexual signals and has been a proposed mechanism driving and maintaining color variation in the anuran family Dendrobatidae. Most studies have examined this reproductive strategy in the polytypic poison frog, Oophaga pumilio, in the Bocas del Toro archipelago in Panama. Little attention, however, has been given to ancestral populations across this species’ mainland range, where dramatic color polytypism appears to lack. Additionally, most studies are exclusively experimental and investigate mate choice between allopatric populations, neglecting the behaviors of naturally occurring mates. This study observed natural mating pairs within a population of O. pumilio on mainland Costa Rica and tested the prediction that color phenotype of mating females and males would be correlated. Naturally occurring pairs were found to share similar coloration, suggesting that color assortative mating operates in nature, and in a mainland population. Our results indicate that coloration is an important trait in driving the natural mate choices of female O. pumilio, which provides valuable insight into realistic mate selection tactics of this dendrobatid frog.

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Both sexes pay a cost of reproduction in a frog with biparental care

Cited by 20 publications

References 45 publications

The Maintenance of Sex and David Lack’s Principle

The Maintenance of Sex and David Lack’s Principle

Both sexes suffer increased parasitism and reduced energy storage as costs of reproduction in the brown anole,Anolis sagrei

Color Assortative Mating in a Mainland Population of the Poison Frog Oophaga pumilio

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