2024-03-29T00:24:57Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/1285932019-06-11T12:34:17Zcom_10261_77com_10261_8col_10261_330
The coevolution of ova defensiveness with sperm competitiveness in house mice
Firman, Renée C.
Gomendio, Montserrat
Roldán, Eduardo R. S.
Simmons, Leigh W.
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
Sexual conflict
Polyspermy
House mice
Experimental evolution
Reproductive barriers
Zona pellucida
Theoretical models have suggested that sperm competition can lead to increased ova resistance to fertilization. While there is some comparative evidence that this might be true, there is no experimental evidence to show that ova defensiveness evolves in response to sperm competition. We performed a series of in vitro fertilization assays to gauge the fertilizability of ova produced by female house mice from experimental populations that evolved either with or without sperm competition. Our analysis revealed that after 24 generations of experimental evolution, females that evolved under a polygamous regime produced more defensive ova than females that evolved under a monogamous regime. We therefore provide the first direct line of evidence that sperm competition can generate sexual conflict at the gametic level and lead to asymmetries in fertilization rates among populations. Our results show that females respond to sperm competition via fertilization barriers that have the potential to mediate sperm entry.
This research was funded by the Australian Research Council, the Spanish Ministry of Economy, and the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Peer reviewed
2016-02-03T08:17:12Z
2016-02-03T08:17:12Z
2014-03-04
artículo
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
American Naturalist 183(4): 565-572 (2014)
0003-0147
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/128593
10.1086/675395
1537-5323
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003329
en
Publisher's version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/675395
Sí
open
University of Chicago Press