Fertilization Selection on Egg and Jelly-Coat Size in the Sand Dollar Dendraster Excentricus

Levitan, Don R.; Irvine, Stacey D.

doi:10.1554/0014-3820(2001)055[2479:fsoeaj]2.0.co;2

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…In blacklip abalone ( Haliotis rubra ) egg size varies among individuals, and larger eggs are more likely to be fertilised than smaller eggs (Huchette et al, ). Large eggs are fertilised first in the sand dollar Dendraster excentricus (Levitan & Irvine, ), and inexpensive accessory structures are used to increase functional egg size (Podolsky, ). Larger eggs are also fertilised first in polychaetes (Marshall & Keough, ), echinoids (Marshall, Steinberg & Evans, ), and ascidians (Marshall, Styan & Keough, ), suggesting a benefit to males of spawning earlier rather than later (Marshall et al, ), and to females of producing larger eggs.…”

Section: Postcopulatory Sexual Selection Acting On Femalesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual selection and its evolutionary consequences in female animals

2018

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For sexual selection to act on a given sex, there must exist variation in the reproductive success of that sex as a result of differential access to mates or fertilisations. The mechanisms and consequences of sexual selection acting on male animals are well documented, but research on sexual selection acting on females has only recently received attention. Controversy still exists over whether sexual selection acts on females in the traditional sense, and over whether to modify the existing definition of sexual selection (to include resource competition) or to invoke alternative mechanisms (usually social selection) to explain selection acting on females in connection with reproduction. However, substantial evidence exists of females bearing characters or exhibiting behaviours that result in differential reproductive success that are analogous to those attributed to sexual selection in males. Here we summarise the literature and provide substantial evidence of female intrasexual competition for access to mates, female intersexual signalling to potential mates, and postcopulatory mechanisms such as competition between eggs for access to sperm and cryptic male allocation. Our review makes clear that sexual selection acts on females and males in similar ways but sometimes to differing extents: the ceiling for the elaboration of costly traits may be lower in females than in males. We predict that current and future research on female sexual selection will provide increasing support for the parsimony and utility of the existing definition of sexual selection.

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Section: Postcopulatory Sexual Selection Acting On Femalesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual selection and its evolutionary consequences in female animals

2018

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“…Even different eggs from a single female spawn may encounter a wisp and be faced with too many sperm or miss the wisp entirely and never encounter sperm (Levitan 1998b). It is therefore not surprising that single eggs show adaptations that both increase encounter rates with sperm (e.g., larger egg cell and jelly coat size; Levitan 1993Levitan , 1996Levitan , 1998bFarley and Levitan 2001;Levitan and Irvine 2001;Podolsky 2001) and decrease polyspermy (fast and slow blocks to polyspermy; Styan 1998;Franke et al 2002). These combinations of traits increase the number of collisions while preventing developmental failure caused by excess sperm (Levitan 1998b).…”

Section: The Symmetry Of Sexual Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When the most clumped species was experimentally thinned to the lower densities typically found in the other two species, it suffered drastic reductions in fertilization success compared with the other species (Levitan 2002a). These species differences in fertilization rate are a function of egg and sperm traits (Levitan 1993(Levitan , 1996(Levitan , 1998a(Levitan , 2000(Levitan , 2002aLevitan and Irvine 2001). Large, sperm-permeable eggs and long-lived but slow sperm are noted in the species found at lowest densities (S. droebachiensis) and small, less permeable eggs and short-lived but fast sperm are noted in species found at the highest densities (S. purpuratus).…”

Section: Patterns Across Related Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Density‐Dependent Sexual Selection in External Fertilizers: Variances in Male and Female Fertilization Success along the Continuum from Sperm Limitation to Sexual Conflict in the Sea Urchin Strongylocentrotus franciscanus

Levitan

2004

The American Naturalist

144

108

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Sperm competition and female choice are fundamentally driven by gender differences in investment per offspring and are often manifested as differences in variance in reproductive success: males compete and have high variance; most females are mated and have low variance. In marine organisms that broadcast spawn, however, females may encounter either sperm limitation or sperm competition. I measured the fertilization success of male and female Strongylocentrotus franciscanus over a range of population densities using microsatellite markers. Female fertilization success first increased and then decreased with mate density, limited at low density by sperm limitation and at high density by polyspermy. Mate density affected variance in fertilization success in both males and females. In males, the variance in fertilization success increased with mate density. In females, the pattern was more complex. The variance in female success increased similarly to males with increased mate density but then decreased to low levels at intermediate densities, where almost all eggs were fertilized. As density increased further, the female variances again increased as polyspermy lowered average fertilization success. Male and female variances differed only at intermediate densities. At low densities, both sexes may be under selection to increase fertilization success; at intermediate densities, males may compete; and at high densities, both sexes may be under selection to increase success by increasing (males) or decreasing (females) likelihood of fertilization during sexual conflict. Only within a narrow range of densities do patterns of sexual selection mirror those typically noted in internally fertilizing taxa.

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“…As one example, fertilization occurs externally for many marine organisms, and larger eggs provide better targets for sperm and therefore have higher fertilization rates (Levitan, 1993(Levitan, , 1996Podolsky and Strathmann, 1996). There is considerable evidence to suggest that when sperm are limiting, selection will favor females that produce larger eggs (Levitan, 1993;Levitan and Irvine, 2001;Farley and Levitan, 2001). However, if egg energy content scales isometrically with egg size, then doubling the volume of an egg also doubles its energetic cost; all else being equal, doubling egg volume would halve the number of offspring a mother could produce, reducing the fitness benefit of increased fertilization success (Jaeckle, 1995;Podolsky and Strathmann, 1996;McEdward and Morgan, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eggs as Energy: Revisiting the Scaling of Egg Size and Energetic Content Among Echinoderms

Moran

McAlister

Whitehill

2013

The Biological Bulletin

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Marine organisms exhibit substantial life-history diversity, of which egg size is one fundamental parameter. The size of an egg is generally assumed to reflect the amount of energy it contains and the amount of per-offspring maternal investment. Egg size and energy are thought to scale isometrically. We investigated this relationship by updating published datasets for echinoderms, increasing the number of species over those in previous studies by 62%. When we plotted egg energy versus egg size in the updated dataset we found that planktotrophs have a scaling factor significantly lower than 1, demonstrating an overall trend toward lower energy density in larger planktotrophic eggs. By looking within three genera, Echinometra, Strongylocentrotus, and Arbacia, we also found that the scaling exponent differed among taxa, and that in Echinometra, energy density was significantly lower in species with larger eggs. Theoretical models generally assume a strong tradeoff between egg size and fecundity that limits energetic investment and constrains life-history evolution. These data suggest that the evolution of egg size and egg energy content can be decoupled, possibly facilitating response to selective factors such as sperm limitation which could act on volume alone.

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Fertilization Selection on Egg and Jelly-Coat Size in the Sand Dollar Dendraster Excentricus

Cited by 10 publications

References 27 publications

Sexual selection and its evolutionary consequences in female animals

Sexual selection and its evolutionary consequences in female animals

Density‐Dependent Sexual Selection in External Fertilizers: Variances in Male and Female Fertilization Success along the Continuum from Sperm Limitation to Sexual Conflict in the Sea Urchin Strongylocentrotus franciscanus

Eggs as Energy: Revisiting the Scaling of Egg Size and Energetic Content Among Echinoderms

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