Examining the potential for resource‐dependent female reproductive fluid‐sperm interactive effects in a livebearing fish

Abstract

Sexual selection influences the evolution of traits that affect reproductive success either before (pre-copulatory) or after (postcopulatory) mating (Andersson, 1994;Darwin, 1871). However, sexually selected traits can be costly to produce and maintain, as resources are diverted away from maintenance, growth, and survival (Reznick, 1992). This diversion of resources can generate trade-offs between life-history traits and sexual traits, potentially influencing how animals invest in traits important in either pre-or post-copulatory episodes of sexual selection (Parker et al., 2012;Simmons et al., 2017) or generating trade-offs between current and

Female reproductive fluids ‘rescue’ sperm from phenotypic ageing in an external fertilizer

“…Female reproductive fluids (i.e. fluids derived from female reproductive tracts or eggs; FRF) serve key functions in most sexually reproducing animals [10] and are known to alter sperm viability [11][12][13][14][15][16], sperm physiology [17,18] [ [24][25][26][27]). However, while FRF is known to play an integral role in mediating sperm behaviour in the fertilization environment, there have been few tests of whether FRF interacts with other environmental factors that affect sperm phenotypes (but see [15]).…”

“…sperm chemokinesis and chemotaxis; [ 24 – 27 ]). However, while FRF is known to play an integral role in mediating sperm behaviour in the fertilization environment, there have been few tests of whether FRF interacts with other environmental factors that affect sperm phenotypes (but see [ 15 ]).…”