Ecological and evolutionary consequences of alternative sex-change pathways in fish.

ABSTRACT: Sequentially hermaphroditic fish change sex from male to female (protandry) or vice versa (protogyny), increasing their fitness by becoming highly fecund females or large dominant males, respectively. These life-history strategies present different social organizations and reproductive modes, from near-random mating in protandry, to aggregate- and harem-spawning in protogyny. Using a combination of theoretical and molecular approaches, we compared variance in reproductive success (V _k*) and effective population sizes (N _e) in several species of sex-changing fish. We observed that, regardless of the direction of sex change, individuals conform to the same overall strategy, producing more offspring and exhibiting greater V _k* in the second sex. However, proto

SUBMITTER: Benvenuto C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5567342 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature