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Kustra MC, Stiver KA, Marsh-Rollo S, Hellmann JK, Alonzo SH. Social Environment Influences the Temporal Dynamics of Sneak-Spawning in a Fish with Alternative Reproductive Tactics. Am Nat 2023; 202:181-191. [PMID: 37531281 DOI: 10.1086/725057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/04/2023]
Abstract
AbstractSeveral predictions of sperm competition theory are not well supported empirically. One potential reason is that most current theory and empirical research ignore how the social environment influence the temporal dynamics of mating. We propose that understanding these dynamics is key to understanding sexual selection and improving the predictive power of theory. To demonstrate the importance of these dynamics, we quantify how males' social role, interactions among males, and current social environment influence the timing of mating in Symphodus ocellatus, a species with three alternative male reproductive tactics. Nesting males spawn synchronously with females; sneakers and satellites sneak-spawn with some time delay. Satellites also cooperate with nesting males. We found that satellites have shorter sneak-spawning delays than sneakers, a benefit of their cooperation with nesting males. Sneak-spawning delays decreased with increasing nest activity for sneakers but not for satellites, suggesting that sneakers may benefit from increased sperm competition intensity. Current sperm competition models ignore this potential benefit, which may be why the prediction that males should decrease investment when sperm competition involves more than two males is not well supported. Our study provides insight into mechanisms that drive variation in the timing of spawning, which could explain mismatches between theoretical and empirical results.
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Ota K. Pause and travel: How sneakers approach closer to spawning sites under territorial vigilance. Anim Behav 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.04.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Engqvist L, Taborsky M. The evolution of genetic and conditional alternative reproductive tactics. Proc Biol Sci 2016; 283:20152945. [PMID: 26911960 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.2945] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Frequency-dependent selection may drive adaptive diversification within species. It is yet unclear why the occurrence of alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) is highly divergent between major animal taxa. Here we aim to clarify the environmental and social conditions favouring the evolution of intra-population variance of male reproductive phenotypes. Our results suggest that genetically determined ARTs that are fixed for life evolve when there is strong selection on body size due to size-dependent competitiveness, in combination with environmental factors reducing size benefits. The latter may result from growth costs or, more generally, from age-dependent but size-independent mortality causes. This generates disruptive selection on growth trajectories underlying tactic choice. In many parameter settings, the model also predicts ARTs to evolve that are flexible and responsive to current conditions. Interestingly, the conditions favouring the evolution of flexible tactics diverge considerably from those favouring genetic variability. Nevertheless, in a restricted but relevant parameter space, our model predicts the simultaneous emergence and maintenance of a mixture of multiple tactics, both genetically and conditionally determined. Important conditions for the emergence of ARTs include size variation of competitors, which is inherently greater in species with indeterminate growth than in taxa reproducing only after reaching their terminal body size. This is probably the reason why ARTs are more common in fishes than in other major taxa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leif Engqvist
- Department of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Michael Taborsky
- Department of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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Wirtz Ocana S, Meidl P, Bonfils D, Taborsky M. Y-linked Mendelian inheritance of giant and dwarf male morphs in shell-brooding cichlids. Proc Biol Sci 2015; 281:20140253. [PMID: 25232141 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.0253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Behavioural variation among conspecifics is typically contingent on individual state or environmental conditions. Sex-specific genetic polymorphisms are enigmatic because they lack conditionality, and genes causing adaptive trait variation in one sex may reduce Darwinian fitness in the other. One way to avoid such genetic antagonism is to control sex-specific traits by inheritance via sex chromosomes. Here, controlled laboratory crossings suggest that in snail-brooding cichlid fish a single locus, two-allele polymorphism located on a sex-linked chromosome of heterogametic males generates an extreme reproductive dimorphism. Both natural and sexual selection are responsible for exceptionally large body size of bourgeois males, creating a niche for a miniature male phenotype to evolve. This extreme intrasexual dimorphism results from selection on opposite size thresholds caused by a single ecological factor, empty snail shells used as breeding substrate. Paternity analyses reveal that in the field parasitic dwarf males sire the majority of offspring in direct sperm competition with large nest owners exceeding their size more than 40 times. Apparently, use of empty snail shells as breeding substrate and single locus sex-linked inheritance of growth are the major ecological and genetic mechanisms responsible for the extreme intrasexual diversity observed in Lamprologus callipterus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabine Wirtz Ocana
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Wohlenstrasse 50a, Hinterkappelen 3032, Switzerland
| | - Patrick Meidl
- Institute of Science and Technology Austria, am Campus 1, Klosterneuburg 3400, Austria
| | - Danielle Bonfils
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Wohlenstrasse 50a, Hinterkappelen 3032, Switzerland
| | - Michael Taborsky
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Wohlenstrasse 50a, Hinterkappelen 3032, Switzerland
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Nali RC, Zamudio KR, Haddad CFB, Prado CPA. Size-dependent selective mechanisms on males and females and the evolution of sexual size dimorphism in frogs. Am Nat 2014; 184:727-40. [PMID: 25438173 DOI: 10.1086/678455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) varies in animals from male biased to female biased. The evolution of SSD is potentially influenced by a number of factors, such as territoriality, fecundity, and temporal breeding patterns (explosive vs. prolonged). In general, frogs show female-biased SSD with broad variance among species. Using comparative methods, we examine how different selective forces affect male and female sizes, and we test hypotheses about size-dependent mechanisms shaping SSD in frogs. Male size was weakly associated with SSD in all size classes, and we found no significant association among SSD, male size, temporal breeding pattern, and male territoriality. In contrast, female size best explained SSD variation across all size classes but especially for small-bodied species. We found a stronger evolutionary association between female body size and fecundity, and this fecundity advantage was highest in explosively breeding species. Our data indicate that the fecundity advantage associated with female body size may not be linear, such that intermediate and large females benefit less with body size increases. Therefore, size-dependent selection in females associated with fecundity and breeding patterns is an important mechanism driving SSD evolution in frogs. Our study underscores the fact that lineage-specific ecology and behavior should be incorporated in comparative analyses of animal SSD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renato C Nali
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia), Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista, 13506-900 Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil
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Ota K, Awata S, Morita M, Kohda M. Sneaker males are not necessarily similar to females in colour in a sexually monochromatic cichlid. J Zool (1987) 2014. [DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- K. Ota
- Department of Biology and Geosciences Osaka City University Osaka Japan
| | - S. Awata
- Sado Marine Biological Station Faculty of Science Niigata University Sado Niigata Japan
| | - M. Morita
- Sesoko Station TBRC University of the Ryukyus Motobu Okinawa Japan
| | - M. Kohda
- Department of Biology and Geosciences Osaka City University Osaka Japan
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Alternative Reproductive Tactics in the Shell-Brooding Lake Tanganyika Cichlid Neolamprologus brevis. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY 2012; 2012:193235. [PMID: 22888463 PMCID: PMC3408672 DOI: 10.1155/2012/193235] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2012] [Revised: 05/22/2012] [Accepted: 05/29/2012] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) are found in several Lake Tanganyika shell-brooding cichlids. Field studies were conducted in the Wonzye population to examine reproductive ecology and ARTs in the Lake Tanganyika shell-brooding cichlid Neolamprologus brevis. We discovered that this fish occurred in both rocky- and sandy-bottom habitats, but in rocky habitats, brood-caring females exclusively occurred in shell-patches that another cichlid species created. All N. brevis of both sexes in the patches were sexually mature, whereas immature males and females with unripe eggs were found frequently in sandy-bottom habitats. Males in sandy-bottom habitats were smaller, but fed more frequently and were in better somatic condition than males in the patches. Similar tendency was found in females. This indicates that N. brevis uses different habitats depending on the stage of its life history, with migration from sandy-bottom habitats to the shell-patches for reproduction. Males in the patches exhibited different behavior patterns: floating above the patches and lying in the patches. The former was larger, more aggressive, and invested less in gonads (relative to body size) than the latter. These results accord with those of other shell-brooding Lake Tanganyika cichlids with ARTs, and they therefore suggest the presence of ARTs in N. brevis.
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Almeida D, Tobes I, Miranda R, Copp G. Cuckoldry features of introduced pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus) in contrasting environmental conditions in southern Europe. CAN J ZOOL 2012. [DOI: 10.1139/z2012-073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Reproduction of pumpkinseed sunfish ( Lepomis gibbosus (L., 1758)) in the species’ native range often involves cuckoldry, consisting of dominant nest-guarding (parental) males and the participation by small “sneaker” males. However, it remains unknown whether this behaviour occurs in populations of non-native pumpkinseed. Thus, the present study describes the phenotypic features of cuckoldry under contrasting environmental conditions (lentic versus lotic) in southern Europe. Parental and sneaker pumpkinseeds were captured in the summer of 2011 from the River Bullaque (central Spain) and from the Encinarejo Reservoir (southern Spain). No differences in total length were observed in sneaker males, although individuals of ages 1+ and 2+ were significantly predominant in the river and the reservoir, respectively. Parental males were larger and older in the reservoir than in the river. Gonadosomatic and hepatosomatic indices were significantly higher in sneaker than in parental males at both sites. Body condition was lower in sneaker males in the river. Both ingested biomass and the proportion of full stomachs were lower in parental males at both sites, being significant in all cases except ingested biomass in the river. Sneaker males achieved a higher gonadosomatic index than parental males. In contrast, parental males had higher body condition indices than sneakers. Results demonstrate the high ecological plasticity of pumpkinseed sunfish to display natural behaviours out of its native area.
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Affiliation(s)
- D. Almeida
- Salmon and Freshwater Team, Cefas, Pakefield Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR33 OHT, UK
| | - I. Tobes
- Department of Zoology and Ecology, School of Sciences, University of Navarra, Irunlarrea 1, E-31008 Pamplona, Spain
| | - R. Miranda
- Department of Zoology and Ecology, School of Sciences, University of Navarra, Irunlarrea 1, E-31008 Pamplona, Spain
| | - G.H. Copp
- Salmon and Freshwater Team, Cefas, Pakefield Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR33 OHT, UK
- Centre for Conservation Ecology and Environmental Change, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset, UK; Environmental and Life Sciences Graduate Program, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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Takegaki T, Kaneko T, Matsumoto Y. Large- and small-size advantages in sneaking behaviour in the dusky frillgoby Bathygobius fuscus. Naturwissenschaften 2012; 99:285-9. [PMID: 22382403 DOI: 10.1007/s00114-012-0899-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2011] [Revised: 02/09/2012] [Accepted: 02/10/2012] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Sneaking tactic, a male alternative reproductive tactic involving sperm competition, is generally adopted by small individuals because of its inconspicuousness. However, large size has an advantage when competition occurs between sneakers for fertilization of eggs. Here, we suggest that both large- and small-size advantages of sneaker males are present within the same species. Large sneaker males of the dusky frillgoby Bathygobius fuscus showed a high success rate in intruding into spawning nests because of their advantage in competition among sneaker males in keeping a suitable position to sneak, whereas small sneakers had few chances to sneak. However, small sneaker males were able to stay in the nests longer than large sneaker males when they succeeded in sneak intrusion. This suggests the possibility of an increase in their paternity. The findings of these size-specific behavioural advantages may be important in considering the evolution of size-related reproductive traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takeshi Takegaki
- Graduate School of Fisheries Science and Environmental Studies, Nagasaki University, 1-14 Bunkyo-machi, Nagasaki, Japan.
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Ota K, Kohda M, Hori M, Sato T. Parker's sneak-guard model revisited: why do reproductively parasitic males heavily invest in testes? Naturwissenschaften 2011; 98:837-43. [PMID: 21850467 DOI: 10.1007/s00114-011-0834-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2011] [Revised: 07/07/2011] [Accepted: 08/05/2011] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Alternative reproductive tactics are widespread in males and may cause intraspecific differences in testes investment. Parker's sneak-guard model predicts that sneaker males, who mate under sperm competition risk, invest in testes relatively more than bourgeois conspecifics that have lower risk. Given that sneakers are much smaller than bourgeois males, sneakers may increase testes investment to overcome their limited sperm productivity because of their small body sizes. In this study, we examined the mechanism that mediates differential testes investment across tactics in the Lake Tanganyika cichlid fish Lamprologus callipterus. In the Rumonge population of Burundi, bourgeois males are small compared with those in other populations and have a body size close to sneaky dwarf males. Therefore, if differences in relative testis investment depend on sperm competition, the rank order of relative testis investment should be dwarf males > bourgeois males in Rumonge = bourgeois males in the other populations. If differences in relative testis investment depend on body size, the rank order of relative testes investment should be dwarf males > bourgeois males in Rumonge > bourgeois males in the other populations. Comparisons of relative testis investment among the three male groups supported the role of sperm competition, as predicted by the sneak-guard model. Nevertheless, the effects of absolute body size on testes investment should be considered to understand the mechanisms underlying intraspecific variation in testes investment caused by alternative reproductive tactics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kazutaka Ota
- Department of Zoology, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Japan.
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Sefc KM. Mating and Parental Care in Lake Tanganyika's Cichlids. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY 2011; 2011:470875. [PMID: 21822482 PMCID: PMC3142683 DOI: 10.4061/2011/470875] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2010] [Revised: 03/22/2011] [Accepted: 05/02/2011] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Cichlid fishes of Lake Tanganyika display a variety of mating and parental care behaviors, including polygamous and monogamous mouthbrooding and substrate breeding, cooperative breeding, as well as various alternative reproductive tactics such as sneaking and piracy. Moreover, reproductive behaviors sometimes vary within species both in space and in time. Here, I survey reports on mating and parenting behaviors of Lake Tanganyika cichlid species and address the evolution of mating and parental care patterns and sexual dimorphism. Notes on measures of sexual selection intensity and the difficulties of defining mating systems and estimating selection intensities at species level conclude the essay.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristina M. Sefc
- Department of Zoology, Karl-Franzens University Graz, Universitätsplatz 2, 8010 Graz, Austria
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