The role of jelly coats in sperm-egg encounters, fertilization success, and selection on egg size in broadcast spawners

The American Naturalist
Gregory S Farley, D R Levitan

Abstract

Sperm limitation may be an important selective force influencing gamete traits such as egg size. The relatively inexpensive extracellular structures surrounding many marine invertebrate eggs might serve to enhance collision rates without the added cost of increasing the egg cell. However, despite decades of research, the effects of extracellular structures on fertilization have not been conclusively documented. Here, using the sea urchin Lytechinus variegatus, we remove jelly coats from eggs, and we quantify sperm collisions to eggs with jelly coats, eggs without jelly coats, and inert plastic beads. We also quantify fertilization success in both egg treatment groups. We find that sperm-egg collision rates increase as a function of sperm concentration and target size and that sperm are not chemotactically attracted to eggs nor to jelly coats in this species. In fertilization assays, the presence of the jelly coat is correlated with a significant but smaller-than-expected improvement in fertilization success. A pair of optimality models predict that, despite the large difference in the energetic value of egg contents and jelly material, the presence of the jelly coat does not diminish selection for larger egg cell size when sper...Continue Reading

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Citations

Feb 8, 2002·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·R D Podolsky
Feb 8, 2002·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·D R Levitan, S D Irvine
Oct 2, 2002·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Don R Levitan
Jul 13, 2007·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·John M C Hutchinson, Peter M Waser
Aug 10, 2007·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Benjamin M Friedrich, Frank Jülicher
Sep 2, 2005·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·D J Marshall, J P Evans
Aug 21, 2013·Annual Review of Marine Science·John P Crimaldi, Richard K Zimmer
Mar 24, 2017·Ecology and Evolution·Lydia KapsenbergGretchen E Hofmann
Apr 20, 2018·PLoS Computational Biology·Justus A KromerBenjamin M Friedrich
Oct 17, 2003·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Phillip G ByrneJ Dale Roberts
Apr 21, 2018·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Shawna A FooMaria Byrne
Nov 30, 2018·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Robin M Hare, Leigh W Simmons

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