Strategic adjustment of ejaculate quality in response to variation of the socio-sexual environment

Magris, Martina

doi:10.1007/s00265-021-03032-1

Cited by 17 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 252 publications

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“…Males are predicted to increase sperm number and/or sperm velocity with increasing risk of sperm competition (Parker & Pizzari 2010). This prediction is meanwhile well supported in many taxa (Magris 2021). Another aspect of the microecology that sperm have to deal with is the biochemical environment that females create around their eggs with their reproductive fluids.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Salmonid males can play various roles during spawning (Esteve 2005), and many of these roles have been found to affect milt and sperm characteristics (Magris 2021). In migratory populations, for example, there is usually a fraction of males that avoid the costs of migration but then remain small and subdominant to their migratory rivals at spawning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sperm of more colorful males are better adapted to ovarian fluids in lake char (Salmonidae)

Nusbaumer

Garaud

Guttry

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Fish often spawn eggs with ovarian fluids that have been hypothesized to support sperm of some males over others (cryptic female choice). Alternatively, sperm reactions to ovarian fluids could reveal male strategies linked to their likely roles during spawning. Sperm of males who would usually be close to females during spawning are then expected to be better adapted to the presence of ovarian fluids than to water only, while the reverse would be expected for males that typically spawn at larger distance to the females. We tested these predictions with gametes and ovarian fluids from wild-caught lake char (Salvelinus umbla). We found that sperm of more colorful males showed increased sperm velocity in diluted ovarian fluids while sperm of paler males were fastest in water only. We then let equal numbers of sperm compete for fertilizations in the presence or absence of ovarian fluids and used microsatellite markers to assign in total 1,464 embryos (from 70 experimental trials) to their fathers. Overall, sperm of more colorful males reached higher fertilization success than sperm of pale males. This difference was enhanced by the presence of ovarian fluids and best explained by the increased sperm velocity. Sperm competitiveness was not enhanced with decreasing male inbreeding coefficients or decreasing genetic distance to a given female, although parallel stress tests on embryos revealed that females would profit more from mating with least related males rather than most colored ones. We conclude that sperm of more colorful males are best adapted to ovarian fluids, and that the observed reaction norms reveal male strategies rather than cryptic female choice.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sperm of more colorful males are better adapted to ovarian fluids in lake char (Salmonidae)

Nusbaumer

Garaud

Guttry

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Such an adaptive strategy may have no direct consequence on the female fecundity and fertility, but it may impact the mating behaviors of females, especially their propensity for remating. Hypothetic mechanisms behind adjustment of sperm quality and quantity mostly involve changes occurring during sperm maturation, which require at least several days (Magris, 2021). Consequently, during our experiments lasting from 24 h prior mating to the moment of mating, rapid changes in spermatophore composition in response to the sexual audience are more likely to be mediated by adjustment of nonsperm component rather than by sperm modification.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, males generally express adaptive reproductive strategies associated with a higher investment during and/or after mating (Wedell et al ., 2002; Bretman et al ., 2011a). For instance, they ejaculate more sperm (Gage & Baker, 1991; Gage & Barnard, 1996; Wedell & Cook, 1999; Thomas & Simmons, 2007; Bretman et al ., 2011a; Garbaczewska et al ., 2013), transfer more viable sperm (Magris, 2021), and seminal fluid proteins (Wigby et al ., 2009) to the females. Such plastic responses to male–male competition also involves modifications of the mating behaviors such as a more intense harassment of females (Sih & Krupa, 1995) and an extended mating duration under strong competition (Friberg, 2006; Bretman et al ., 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual audience affects male's reproduction investment without consequences on reproductive outputs

et al. 2022

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Males evolved plastic strategies to respond to male–male competition and exhibit adaptive traits and behaviors maximizing their access to the females and limiting sperm competition. Mating behaviors allow males to express quick responses to current sexual audience, that is, the number of nearby conspecifics prone to mate. In contrast, physiological responses are frequently delayed because they are constrained by the time and resources having to be mobilized to produce and export sperm and associated products. This is especially critical in species for which males produce spermatophores. Here we investigated in what extend moth males (the tortricid moth Lobesia botrana) producing spermatophores exhibit plastic behavioral and physiological responses to different sexual audiences before and during mating and the consequences for their reproductive output. We found that males adjusted their mating behaviors and spermatophore size to a potentially elevated risk of sperm competition perceived before mating. In addition, males responded to the closed presence of females during mating by reducing their mating duration. Surprisingly, the various behavioral and physiological responses we highlighted here were not fully reflected in their reproductive performance as we did not reveal any effect on fecundity and fertility of their mate. The selective pressure exerted on males experiencing male–male competition could thus be sufficient to trigger adjustment in male mating behaviors but constrains physiological responses according to the perception of competition.

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“…In fact, sperm cells are one of the most diverse and rapidly evolving cells in the animal kingdom [10,11], and divergence in seminal fluid proteins contributes to reproductive isolation and therefore speciation and biodiversity [12][13][14]. Not only do sperm and other ejaculate traits diverge among populations and species [4,9,[15][16][17][18], these traits also differ among individuals in the same population [3,[19][20][21][22][23], and even change over the lifetime of an individual in response 2 of 18 to their experience, condition, and social environment [24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. All else being equal, sperm velocity, motility and longevity are expected to be higher in species with more frequent and intense sperm competition [31,32] and for individuals within species that experience chronically higher sperm competition [1,2,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ejaculate Allocation and Sperm Characteristics Differ among Alternative Male Types in a Species of Fish with Cooperation and Competition among Unrelated Males

Alonzo

Stiver

Kindsvater

et al. 2021

Cells

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Sexual selection arising from sperm competition has driven the evolution of immense variation in ejaculate allocation and sperm characteristics not only among species, but also among males within a species. One question that has received little attention is how cooperation among males affects these patterns. Here we ask how male alternative reproductive types differ in testes size, ejaculate production, and sperm morphology in the ocellated wrasse, a marine fish in which unrelated males cooperate and compete during reproduction. Nesting males build nests, court females and provide care. Sneaker males only “sneak” spawn, while satellite males sneak, but also help by chasing away sneakers. We found that satellite males have larger absolute testes than either sneakers or nesting males, despite their cooperative role. Nesting males invested relatively less in testes than either sneakers or satellites. Though sneakers produced smaller ejaculates than either satellite or nesting males, we found no difference among male types in either sperm cell concentration or sperm number, implying sneakers may produce less seminal fluid. Sperm tail length did not differ significantly among male types, but sneaker sperm cells had significantly larger heads than either satellite or nesting male sperm, consistent with past research showing sneakers produce slower sperm. Our results highlight that social interactions among males can influence sperm and ejaculate production.

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Strategic adjustment of ejaculate quality in response to variation of the socio-sexual environment

Cited by 17 publications

References 252 publications

Sperm of more colorful males are better adapted to ovarian fluids in lake char (Salmonidae)

Sperm of more colorful males are better adapted to ovarian fluids in lake char (Salmonidae)

Sexual audience affects male's reproduction investment without consequences on reproductive outputs

Ejaculate Allocation and Sperm Characteristics Differ among Alternative Male Types in a Species of Fish with Cooperation and Competition among Unrelated Males

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