Male mate choice in livebearing fishes: an overview

Schlupp, Ingo

doi:10.1093/cz/zoy028

Cited by 37 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 184 publications

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“…This shift in research interest is reflected by a number of reviews within the last decade demonstrating the prevalence of female competition and male choice (Edward & Chapman, 2011; Hare & Simmons, 2018; Rosvall, 2011; Schlupp, 2018; Stockley & Bro-Jørgensen, 2011). Importantly, these behaviors are not restricted to species where there is an a priori expectation of sex-role ‘reversal’, because male-mate choice can co-occur with female mate choice, and similarly, both sexes can show intra-sexual competition for mating opportunities.…”

Section: Survey Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Endless forms of sexual selection

Lindsay

Andersson

Bererhi

et al. 2019

PeerJ

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In recent years, the field of sexual selection has exploded, with advances in theoretical and empirical research complementing each other in exciting ways. This perspective piece is the product of a “stock-taking” workshop on sexual selection and sexual conflict. Our aim is to identify and deliberate on outstanding questions and to stimulate discussion rather than provide a comprehensive overview of the entire field. These questions are organized into four thematic sections we deem essential to the field. First we focus on the evolution of mate choice and mating systems. Variation in mate quality can generate both competition and choice in the opposite sex, with implications for the evolution of mating systems. Limitations on mate choice may dictate the importance of direct vs. indirect benefits in mating decisions and consequently, mating systems, especially with regard to polyandry. Second, we focus on how sender and receiver mechanisms shape signal design. Mediation of honest signal content likely depends on integration of temporally variable social and physiological costs that are challenging to measure. We view the neuroethology of sensory and cognitive receiver biases as the main key to signal form and the ‘aesthetic sense’ proposed by Darwin. Since a receiver bias is sufficient to both initiate and drive ornament or armament exaggeration, without a genetically correlated or even coevolving receiver, this may be the appropriate ‘null model’ of sexual selection. Thirdly, we focus on the genetic architecture of sexually selected traits. Despite advances in modern molecular techniques, the number and identity of genes underlying performance, display and secondary sexual traits remains largely unknown. In-depth investigations into the genetic basis of sexual dimorphism in the context of long-term field studies will reveal constraints and trajectories of sexually selected trait evolution. Finally, we focus on sexual selection and conflict as drivers of speciation. Population divergence and speciation are often influenced by an interplay between sexual and natural selection. The extent to which sexual selection promotes or counteracts population divergence may vary depending on the genetic architecture of traits as well as the covariance between mating competition and local adaptation. Additionally, post-copulatory processes, such as selection against heterospecific sperm, may influence the importance of sexual selection in speciation. We propose that efforts to resolve these four themes can catalyze conceptual progress in the field of sexual selection, and we offer potential avenues of research to advance this progress.

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Section: Survey Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Endless forms of sexual selection

Lindsay

Andersson

Bererhi

et al. 2019

PeerJ

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“…Male investment in sexually selected traits that deliver advantages during male-male competition for females does not preclude male mate choice (Edward andChapman 2011, Schlupp 2018). Male mate choice is sometimes analogous to conventional female choice: males choose whom to reject (e.g., Schlupp 2018). Alternatively, male choice can be more subtle, such as a male adjusting his mating effort depending on a female's quality (Bonduriansky 2001;Engqvist and Sauer 2001;Reinhold et al 2002;Nandy et al 2012;Godin and Auld 2013), and/or the size of the ejaculates he transfers (Simmons et al 2007;Kelly and Jennions 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in the condition-dependence of individual sexual traits in male eastern mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki

Fox

Gearing²,

Jennions

et al. 2019

Behavioral Ecology

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Most sexually selected traits are costly to produce and therefore tend to show condition-dependent expression. But individuals have a finite set of resources to invest across the multiple traits on which sexual selection acts. This necessarily leads to trade-offs among individual traits and between different reproductive stages. The effect of male condition on trait expression might therefore vary for different sexually selected traits depending on the marginal gains from investment into one trait rather than another. We manipulated the diet of eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) to test the condition-dependence of 4 components of male mating effort that are under precopulatory sexual selection (male-male aggressiveness, time spent with females, rate of copulation attempts, and male mate choice). We found positive condition-dependence of both the time spent with females and the rate of copulation attempts, but negative condition-dependence of male aggression towards rivals (all P < 0.05). By contrast, the level of male mating preference for larger, more fecund females did not vary significantly with male condition. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating variation in resource acquisition, hence condition, into allocation models that predict investment into multiple sexually selected traits.

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“…Most previous studies in the Poeciliidae do not report a significant correlation between female size and multiple paternity (Trexler, 1997;Zane et al, 1999;Neff et al, 2008;Girndt et al, 2012;Paczolt et al, 2015;Zeng et al, 2017), although a significant relationship was found in Gambusia affinis and Poecilia latipinna (Travis et al, 1990;Greene and Brown, 1991). We expected to find a positive relationship between female size and multiple paternity, as many earlier studies have shown a male preference for larger females (including the closely related P. reticulata and P. latipinna; Bisazza et al, 1989;Ptacek and Travis, 1997;Dosen and Montgomerie, 2004;Herdman et al, 2004;Hoysak and Godin, 2007;Schlupp, 2018). But this preference, usually assessed using choice-experiments in the lab, might not reflect actual mating opportunities in natural situations.…”

Section: Effect Of Female Traits On Multiple Paternitymentioning

confidence: 72%

“…Simple mathematics dictate that the larger a brood, the larger the absolute number of potential sires that can contribute to that brood (Avise and Liu, 2011): i.e., a brood of two offspring can be sired by a maximum of two fathers, while a brood of 30 offspring can be sired by a maximum of 30 different males. Several studies have furthermore shown that males prefer to mate with larger females (Bisazza et al, 1989;Ptacek and Travis, 1997;Dosen and Montgomerie, 2004;Herdman et al, 2004;Hoysak and Godin, 2007), presumably because they increase their chance of producing more offspring as these females generally carry more eggs (Schlupp, 2018). These above processes may explain the observed positive associations between female size, brood size and multiple paternity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

High Degree of Multiple Paternity and Reproductive Skew in the Highly Fecund Live-Bearing Fish Poecilia gillii (Family Poeciliidae)

et al. 2020

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Multiple paternity is a common phenomenon within the live-bearing fish family Poeciliidae. There is a great variety in brood sizes of at least two orders-of-magnitude across the family. However, little is known about the ramifications of this remarkable variation for the incidence and degree of multiple paternity and reproductive skew. Mollies (subgenus Mollienesia, genus Poecilia) produce some of the largest broods in the family Poeciliidae, making them an excellent model to study the effects of intraspecific variation in brood size on patterns of multiple paternity. We collected samples of the live-bearing fish Poecilia gillii from 9 locations in Costa Rica. We measured body size of 159 adult females, of which 72 were pregnant. These samples had a mean brood size of 47.2 ± 3.0 embryos, ranging from 4 to 130 embryos. We genotyped 196 field-collected specimens with 5 microsatellite markers to obtain location-specific allele frequencies. In addition, we randomly selected 31 pregnant females, genotyped all their embryos (N = 1346) and calculated two different parameters of multiple paternity: i.e., the minimum number of sires per litter using an exclusion-based method (GERUD) and the estimated number of sires per litter using a maximum likelihood approach (COLONY). Based on these two approaches, multiple paternity was detected in 22 and 27 (out of the 31) females, respectively, with the minimum number of sires ranging from 1 to 4 (mean ± SE: 2.1 ± 0.16 sires per female) and the estimated number of fathers ranging from 1 to 9 (mean ± SE: 4.2 ± 0.35 sires per female). The number of fathers per brood was positively correlated with brood size, but not with female size. Next, we calculated the reproductive skew per brood using the estimated number of sires, and found that in 21 out of the 27 multiply sired broods sires did not contribute equally to the offspring. Skew was not correlated with either female size, brood size or the number of sires per brood. Finally, we discuss several biological mechanisms that may influence multiple paternity and reproductive skew in P. gillii as well as in the Poeciliidae in general.

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Male mate choice in livebearing fishes: an overview

Cited by 37 publications

References 184 publications

Endless forms of sexual selection

Endless forms of sexual selection

Variation in the condition-dependence of individual sexual traits in male eastern mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki

High Degree of Multiple Paternity and Reproductive Skew in the Highly Fecund Live-Bearing Fish Poecilia gillii (Family Poeciliidae)

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