Increased sperm production linked to competition in the maternal social environment

Hobson, Liane; Hurst, Jane L.; Stockley, Paula

doi:10.1098/rsos.201171

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…For example, a male raises his investment in sperm after he detects the current or future increase of sperm competition because relative sperm numbers can predict his paternity share ( Parker 1970 ; Parker et al 1997 ; Simmons 2001 ; Parker and Pizzari 2010 ; Lüpold et al 2020 ). Although larger males usually have more sperm ( Pitnick 1996 ; Hatala et al 2018 ; Chung et al 2019 ; Xu and Wang 2020 ), the social environment experienced by juvenile males does not appear to affect their body size in some insects ( Gage 1995 ; Hosken and Ward 2001 ; Allen et al 2011 ; Bretman et al 2016 ) and mammals ( Hobson et al 2020 ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Larval social cues influence testicular investment in an insect

Liu

Zheng

et al. 2021

Current Zoology

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Socio-sexual environment can have critical impacts on reproduction and survival of animals. Consequently, they need to prepare themselves by allocating more resources to competitive traits that give them advantages in the particular social setting they have been perceiving. Evidence shows that a male usually raises his investment in sperm after he detects the current or future increase of sperm competition because relative sperm numbers can determine his paternity share. This leads to the wide use of testis size as an index of the sperm competition level, yet testis size does not always reflect sperm production. To date, it is not clear whether male animals fine-tune their resource allocation to sperm production and other traits as a response to social cues during their growth and development. Using a polygamous insect Ephestia kuehniella, we tested whether and how larval social environment affected sperm production, testis size and body weight. We exposed the male larvae to different juvenile socio-sexual cues and measured these traits. We demonstrate that regardless of sex ratio, group-reared males produced more eupyrenes (fertile and nucleate sperm) but smaller testes than singly-reared ones, and that body weight and apyrene (infertile and anucleate sperm) numbers remained the same across treatments. We conclude that the presence of larval social, but not sexual cues, is responsible for the increase of eupyrene production and decrease of testis size. We suggest that male larvae increase investment in fertile sperm cells and reduce investment in other testicular tissues in the presence of conspecific juvenile cues.

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confidence: 99%

Larval social cues influence testicular investment in an insect

Liu

Zheng

et al. 2021

Current Zoology

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“…, 2019; Hobson et al. , 2020). The lack of correlation between testis size and sperm production is probably because animals can dedicate varying portions of testis volumes to spermatogenesis and other functions in response to sperm competition environment (Lüpold et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We suggest that under our rearing conditions with ad libitum food supply (also see Bhavanam et al, 2012;Liu et al, 2022), the larvae have sufficient resources to adjust spermatogenesis without compromising juvenile survival, adult longevity, body size, and mating frequency, which are essential traits for male fitness (Honěk, 1993;Blanckenhorn, 2000;Komo et al, 2020;Kappeler, 2021). Although sperm production and testis size are positively correlated in some species (review in Vahed & Parker, 2012), various studies demonstrate that in response to sperm competition risk, testis size has no significant effect on sperm production in E. kuehniella (Liu et al, 2022) and other animals (Byrne et al, 2002;Gay et al, 2009;Fitzpatrick et al, 2012;Bretman et al, 2016;Liao et al, 2019;Hobson et al, 2020). The lack of correlation between testis size and sperm production is probably because animals can dedicate varying portions of testis volumes to spermatogenesis and other functions in response to sperm competition environment (Lüpold et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, changes in resource allocations may result in trade-offs between spermatogenesis and other life traits (Ramm & Stockley, 2009;Devigili et al, 2015;Paschoal & Zara, 2022). However, previous studies suggest that juvenile social environment has little impact on juvenile survival (Woodroffe & Macdonald, 2000;Berger et al, 2015;Cannarsa et al, 2015), body size at maturity (Gage, 1995;Lemaître et al, 2011;Bretman et al, 2016;Hobson et al, 2020), and resultant adults' mating frequency (Rutledge & Uetz, 2014;Liu et al, 2022) and longevity (McNamara et al, 2010). Yet, none of these studies has explored the effect of juvenile experience on all these traits in any single species, making it difficult to determine whether adjustment of investment in sperm would alter resource allocation to all other traits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, 2016; Hobson et al. , 2020), and resultant adults’ mating frequency (Rutledge & Uetz, 2014; Liu et al. , 2022) and longevity (McNamara et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Male larval experience of cues from adult rivals alters lifetime sperm investment patterns in a sperm heteromorphic moth, Ephestia kuehniella

Liu

Wang

2023

Insect Science

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Male animals may adjust their resource allocations for reproduction and other fitness functions in response to cues from rivals. For instance, adult males increase their investment in sperm for a higher paternity share when they perceive sperm competition risk in their surroundings. In nature, both juveniles and adults may coexist spatially and temporally. Yet, it is not clear how juvenile males of different ages respond to cues from adult rivals and fine‐tune their lifetime investment in sperm production and ejaculation in any insect. Here we used the Mediterranean flour moth, Ephestia kuehniella, which produces both fertile eupyrene and infertile apyrene sperm, to explore this question. We demonstrate that the late, but not early, instar larvae are sensitive to adult male cues. As a response, they produce more sperm before emergence and their resultant adults have shorter mating latency and ejaculate more sperm in the first few matings. When the juvenile stage produces more eupyrenes, the adult stops making these sperm, but regardless of the number of apyrenes produced during the juvenile stage, the adult continues to make them. These findings suggest that the number of spermatogonia for eupyrenes may be limited and that for apyrenes may be flexible. Our results show that the insect does not trade off survival, mating frequency, body size, or testis size for sperm production in response to adult males during the larval stage. Knowledge created in the present study offers insight into the stage‐dependent sensitivity of juvenile males to cues from adult rivals and subsequent lifetime resource allocations.

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Sperm Competition: Piggybacking Hypothesis

Daniel,

Patil

2023

Encyclopedia of Sexual Psychology and Behavior

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Increased sperm production linked to competition in the maternal social environment

Cited by 4 publications

References 50 publications

Larval social cues influence testicular investment in an insect

Larval social cues influence testicular investment in an insect

Male larval experience of cues from adult rivals alters lifetime sperm investment patterns in a sperm heteromorphic moth, Ephestia kuehniella

Sperm Competition: Piggybacking Hypothesis

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