Postcopulatory sexual selection results in spermatozoa with more uniform head and flagellum sizes in rodents.

ABSTRACT: Interspecific comparative studies have shown that, in most taxa, postcopulatory sexual selection (PCSS) in the form of sperm competition drives the evolution of longer and faster swimming sperm. Work on passserine birds has revealed that PCSS also reduces variation in sperm size between males at the intraspecific level. However, the influence of PCSS upon intra-male sperm size diversity is poorly understood, since the few studies carried out to date in birds have yielded contradictory results. In mammals, PCSS increases sperm size but there is little information on the effects of this selective force on variations in sperm size and shape. Here, we test whether sperm competition associates with a reduction in the degree of variation of sperm dimensions in rodents. We found that as sperm com

SUBMITTER: Varea-Sanchez M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4171531 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature