No support for the sexy-sperm hypothesis in the seed beetle: Sons of monandrous females fare better in post-copulatory competition.

ABSTRACT: The sexy-sperm hypothesis posits that polyandrous females derive an indirect fitness benefit from multi-male mating because they increase the probability their eggs are fertilized by males whose sperm have high fertilizing efficiency, which is assumed to be heritable and conferred on their sons. However, whether this process occurs is contentious because father-to-son heritability may be constrained by the genetic architecture underlying traits important in sperm competition within certain species. Previous empirical work has revealed such genetic constraints in the seed beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus, a model system in sperm competition studies in which female multi-male mating is ubiquitous. Using the seed beetle, I tested a critical prediction of the sexy-sperm hypothesis that

SUBMITTER: Hook KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6303747 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature