Variation in Lipid Peroxidation in the Ejaculates of Wild Banded Mongooses (Mungos mungo): A Test of the Oxidative Shielding Hypothesis.

ABSTRACT: Reproductive activity is costly in terms of future reproduction and survival. Oxidative stress has been identified as a likely mechanism underlying this cost of reproduction. However, empirical studies have yielded the paradoxical observation that breeders often sustain lower levels of oxidative damage than non-breeders. The oxidative shielding hypothesis attempts to explain such data, and posits that breeders pre-emptively reduce levels of oxidative damage in order to protect their germ cells, and any resultant offspring, from harm caused by exposure to oxidative damage. While there is some empirical evidence of oxidative shielding in females, there have been no explicit tests of this hypothesis in males, despite evidence of the oxidative costs to the male reproductive effort and the vuln

SUBMITTER: Birch G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11429081 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature