Increased sperm production linked to competition in the maternal social environment.

ABSTRACT: Maternal or early life effects may prepare offspring for similar social conditions to those experienced by their mothers. For males, the ability to achieve mating and fertilization success is a key social challenge. Competitive conditions may therefore favour increased body size or ejaculate production in male offspring. We tested this experimentally by comparing reproductive traits of adult male bank voles (Myodes glareolus), whose mothers had experienced contrasting encounter regimes with female conspecifics while breeding. We found that daily sperm production rates and epididymis mass were significantly higher when dams had experienced more frequent encounters with female conspecifics. This response to maternal and early life experience was specific to sperm production and storag

SUBMITTER: Hobson L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7813238 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature