Quantifying episodes of sexual selection: Insights from a transparent worm with fluorescent sperm

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
Lucas Marie-OrleachLukas Schärer

Abstract

Sexual selection operates through consecutive episodes of selection that ultimately contribute to the observed variance in reproductive success between individuals. Understanding the relative importance of these episodes is challenging, particularly because the relevant postcopulatory fitness components are often difficult to assess. Here, we investigate different episodes of sexual selection on the male sex function, by assessing how (precopulatory) mating success, and (postcopulatory) sperm-transfer efficiency and sperm-fertilizing efficiency contribute to male reproductive success. Specifically, we used a transgenic line of the transparent flatworm, Macrostomum lignano, which expresses green fluorescent protein (GFP) in all cell types, including sperm cells, enabling in vivo sperm tracking and paternity analysis. We found that a large proportion of variance in male reproductive success arose from the postcopulatory episodes. Moreover, we also quantified selection differentials on 10 morphological traits. Testis size and seminal vesicle size showed significant positive selection differentials, which were mainly due to selection on sperm-transfer efficiency. Overall, our results demonstrate that male reproductive success in M....Continue Reading

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Citations

Mar 3, 2017·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Lucas Marie-OrleachLukas Schärer
Apr 11, 2017·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Stefan LüpoldWen Bo Liao
Apr 21, 2017·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·C S McDiarmidM Olsson
Jun 15, 2017·ELife·Jeroen Na HofferJoris M Koene
Feb 20, 2018·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Erin L McCulloughLeigh W Simmons
Jan 18, 2018·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Silvia CattelanAndrea Pilastro
Aug 16, 2018·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Nicolás BonelPatrice David
Jun 20, 2019·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Jeanne TonnabelJohn R Pannell
Nov 9, 2019·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·Bahar Patlar, Steven A Ramm
Mar 28, 2020·Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology·Philipp Kaufmann, Lukas Schärer
Nov 30, 2018·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Robin M Hare, Leigh W Simmons
May 4, 2018·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Tim JanickeLucas Marie-Orleach
Mar 12, 2020·EvoDevo·Jakub WudarskiEugene Berezikov
Sep 6, 2020·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Jonathan M HenshawAdam G Jones
Oct 20, 2020·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Jonathan P Evans, Rowan A Lymbery
Dec 17, 2019·Current Biology : CB·Bahar PatlarSteven A Ramm
Feb 16, 2021·Genome Biology and Evolution·Katja R KasimatisZachary C Stevenson

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