Female multiple mating behaviour, early reproductive failure and litter size variation in mammals

Stockley, Paula

doi:10.1098/rspb.2002.2228

Cited by 105 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…A comparative analysis across mammals suggested that polyandry may allow paternity to be biased towards compatible genotypes and, therefore, enhance embryo survival during development [43], and offspring born to female house mice mated polyandrously were shown to have greater survival rates when compared with offspring born to females mated monandrously [44]. Consequently, maternal effects such as differential female investment in developing embryos or altricial pups may have also contributed to a paternity bias towards males with a polygamous selection history.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polyandrous females benefit by producing sons that achieve high reproductive success in a competitive environment

Firman

2011

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Females of many taxa often copulate with multiple males and incite sperm competition. On the premise that males of high genetic quality are more successful in sperm competition, it has been suggested that females may benefit from polyandry by accruing 'good genes' for their offspring. Laboratory studies have shown that multiple mating can increase female fitness through enhanced embryo viability, and have exposed how polyandry influences the evolution of the ejaculate. However, such studies often do not allow for both female mate choice and male -male competition to operate simultaneously. Here, I took house mice (Mus domesticus) from selection lines that had been evolving with (polygamous) and without (monogamous) sperm competition for 16 generations and, by placing them in free-ranging enclosures for 11 weeks, forced them to compete for access to resources and mates. Parentage analyses revealed that female reproductive success was not influenced by selection history, but there was a significant paternity bias towards males from the polygamous selection lines. Therefore, I show that female house mice benefit from polyandry by producing sons that achieve increased fitness in a semi-natural environment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polyandrous females benefit by producing sons that achieve high reproductive success in a competitive environment

Firman

2011

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…Stockley 1997aStockley , 2003Gomendio et al 1998;Hoogland 1998) because benefits are required to offset the putative costs of multiple mating, such as increased parasite transmission and predation (Thrall et al 1997;Gomendio et al 1998). …”

Section: Discussion (A) Male Mate Choice and Assortative Parentagementioning

confidence: 99%

Male mate choice influences female promiscuity in Soay sheep

et al. 2005

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In most animal species, males are predicted to compete for reproductive opportunities, while females are expected to choose between potential mates. However, when males' rate of reproduction is constrained, or females vary widely in 'quality', male mate choice is also predicted to occur. Such conditions exist in the promiscuous mating system of feral Soay sheep on St Kilda, Scotland, where a highly synchronized mating season, intense sperm competition and limitations on sperm production constrain males' potential reproductive rate, and females vary substantially in their ability to produce successful offspring. We show that, consistent with predictions, competitive rams focus their mating activity and siring success towards heavier females with higher inclusive fitness. To our knowledge, this is the first time that male mate choice has been identified and shown to lead to assortative patterns of parentage in a natural mammalian system, and occurs despite fierce male-male competition for mates. An additional consequence of assortative mating in this population is that lighter females experience a series of unstable consorts with less adept rams, and hence are mated by a greater number of males during their oestrus. We have thus also identified a novel male-driven mechanism that generates variation in female promiscuity, which suggests that the high levels of female promiscuity in this system are not part of an adaptive female tactic to intensify post-copulatory competition between males.

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“…Multiple mating by females is now known to occur in numerous taxa (Birkhead and Møller 1998;Simmons 2001;Zeh and Zeh 2001;Stockley 2003), which has focused attention on its evolutionary causes and consequences (Arnqvist and Nilsson 2000;Jennions and Petrie 2000;Tregenza and Wedell 2000). This is particularly true in birds; only in the last decade has multiple mating by females (in the form of extrapair paternity, EPP) been recognized as an important component of male and female reproductive strategies (Birkhead and Møller 1998;Griffith et al 2002;Westneat and Stewart 2003).…”

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confidence: 99%

Little Effect of Extrapair Paternity on the Opportunity for Sexual Selection in Savannah Sparrows (Passerculus Sandwichenisis)

et al. 2005

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Abstract. Extrapair paternity (EPP) can dramatically increase the opportunity for sexual selection if relatively few males are able to monopolize the majority of fertilizations in a population. Although recent work with birds suggests that EPP can increase the standardized variance in male reproductive success (I s ) as much as 13-fold, only a male's within-pair success is typically quantified with any accuracy. In most cases, nearly half of all extrapair young are of unknown parentage. A strong, negative correlation across studies between the proportion of extrapair young for which parentage is known and the apparent effect of EPP on I s (r s ϭ Ϫ0.71, P ϭ 0.013, N ϭ 13 studies) suggests that the incomplete sampling of extrapair sires has greatly exaggerated the influence of EPP. To achieve a more thorough accounting of EPP and its importance to variation in male fitness, we used a suite of four to six microsatellite loci to identify extrapair young and their sires in a polygynous population of Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis). Pooling over the 2002 and 2003 breeding seasons, 79 of 116 females (68.1%) produced young outside of the pairbond and 194 of 411 offspring (47.2%) were extrapair. We identified sires for 96.4% of all young (N ϭ 396), including sires for 92.3% of the extrapair young (N ϭ 179), allowing us to partition I s into within-pair and extrapair components. In both years, EPP-related fitness components generated more variation in male reproductive success than the number or quality of within-pair mates. Differences among males in the number of extrapair mates alone accounted for 56.6% of I s in 2002 and for 23.6% of I s in 2003. Nonetheless, in absolute terms, the occurrence of EPP on Kent Island increased the opportunity for sexual selection less than two-fold. Averaging over the two years, I s was only 78% higher than I s,app , the variance in male reproductive success that would have occurred had EPP been nonexistent and males sired all young on their territories. Likewise, across nine socially monogamous species, we found no correlation between the extent of EPP and its effect on the opportunity for sexual selection (I s /I s,app ) and only a marginally significant positive correlation between EPP and I s itself. Taken together, our results suggest that the relationship between EPP and sexual selection in birds may be much less strong and much less straightforward than commonly thought.

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Female multiple mating behaviour, early reproductive failure and litter size variation in mammals

Cited by 105 publications

References 79 publications

Polyandrous females benefit by producing sons that achieve high reproductive success in a competitive environment

Polyandrous females benefit by producing sons that achieve high reproductive success in a competitive environment

Male mate choice influences female promiscuity in Soay sheep

Little Effect of Extrapair Paternity on the Opportunity for Sexual Selection in Savannah Sparrows (Passerculus Sandwichenisis)

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