Multiple mating and its relationship to alternative modes of gestation in male-pregnant versus female-pregnant fish species.

ABSTRACT: We construct a verbal and graphical theory (the "fecundity-limitation hypothesis") about how constraints on the brooding space for embryos probably truncate individual fecundity in male-pregnant and female-pregnant species in ways that should differentially influence selection pressures for multiple mating by males or by females. We then review the empirical literature on genetically deduced rates of multiple mating by the embryo-brooding parent in various fish species with three alternative categories of pregnancy: internal gestation by males, internal gestation by females, and external gestation (in nests) by males. Multiple mating by the brooding gender was common in all three forms of pregnancy. However, rates of multiple mating as well as mate numbers for the pregnant parent averaged

SUBMITTER: Avise JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2973910 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature