Postcopulatory sexual selection

Abstract

The female reproductive tract is where competition between the sperm of different males takes place, aided and abetted by the female herself. Intense postcopulatory sexual selection fosters inter-sexual conflict and drives rapid evolutionary change to generate a startling diversity of morphological, behavioural and physiological adaptations. We identify three main issues that should be resolved to advance our understanding of postcopulatory sexual selection. We need to determine the genetic basis of different male fertility traits and female traits that mediate sperm selection; identify the genes or genomic regions that control these traits; and establish the coevolutionary trajectory of sexes.

MHC‐dependent mate choice in humans: Why genomic patterns from the HapMap European American dataset support the hypothesis

“…Consequently, although the Hutterites study clearly points to MHCdisassortative mating, we have to consider the possibility that the excess of dissimilarity observed at the MHC level among European American spouses from the HapMap dataset reflects a combination of pre-copulatory (mate choice) and post-copulatory processes, the latter aiming at further increasing MHC heterozygosity in the offspring [33][34][35][36][37]. This hypothesis is further supported by the observation that genes potentially involved in either prezygotic female choice or pregnancy loss displayed signatures of extreme dissimilarity among spouses in the HapMap dataset [38].…”

The semenogelins: proteins with functions beyond reproduction?

“…It is common with a history of rapid evolution for proteins involved in reproduction [15]. Naturally, as major constituents of semen, the semenogelins are closely associated with reproduction, and a large proportion of our knowledge on these proteins consists of results and hypotheses related to fertility [16].…”

Sexual Conflict and Cryptic Female Choice in the Black Field Cricket, Teleogryllus Commodus

“…Consequently, guarded females retain spermatophores for significantly longer than unguarded females. We do not know, however, whether females remove spermatophores from certain males sooner than others (i.e., whether spermatophore removal constitutes directional CFC sensu Birkhead and Pizzari 2002) or whether males favored by CFC mate guard to a greater or lesser extent than rivals.…”

“…The mechanisms and evolutionary consequences of sperm competition are well established (Birkhead and Moller 1998;Simmons 2001b), but the prevalence of CFC remains controversial (Birkhead 1998;Telford and Jennions 1998;Birkhead 2000;Eberhard 2000;Kempenaers et al 2000;Pitnick and Brown 2000;Birkhead and Pizzari 2002) in spite of its numerous and important evolutionary implications (Eberhard 1996). For example, CFC is central to determining whether post-copulatory processes reinforce or oppose pre-copulatory mate choice (Danielsson 2001) and whether indirect benefits of post-copulatory paternity biasing can offset or complement the direct costs and benefits of mating (Bussière 2002;Cameron et al 2003;Chapman et al 2003a;Eberhard and Cordero 2003).…”