scholarly journals Fitness Benefits of Mate Choice for Compatibility in a Socially Monogamous Species

PLoS Biology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. e1002248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malika Ihle ◽  
Bart Kempenaers ◽  
Wolfgang Forstmeier
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
Fitness Benefits

scholarly journals Why inclusive fitness can make it adaptive to produce less fit extra-pair offspring

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1801) ◽  
pp. 20142716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussi Lehtonen ◽  
Hanna Kokko
Keyword(s):  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Reproductive Season ◽  
Breeding Systems ◽  
Social Partner ◽  
Social Monogamy ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
Fitness Benefits

Social monogamy predominates in avian breeding systems, but most socially monogamous species engage in promiscuous extra-pair copulations (EPCs). The reasons behind this remain debated, and recent empirical work has uncovered patterns that do not seem to fit existing hypotheses. In particular, some results seem to contradict the inbreeding avoidance hypothesis: females can prefer extra-pair partners that are more closely related to them than their social partners, and extra-pair young can have lower fitness than within-pair young. Motivated by these studies, we show that such results can become explicable when an asymmetry in inbreeding tolerance between monogamy and polygamy is extended to species that combine both strategies within a single reproductive season. Under fairly general conditions, it can be adaptive for a female to choose an unrelated social partner, but inbreed with an extra-pair partner. Inbreeding depression is compensated for by inclusive fitness benefits, which are only fully realized in EPCs. We also show that if a female has already formed a suboptimal social bond, there are scenarios where it is beneficial to engage in EPCs with less related males, and others where EPCs with more related males increase her inclusive fitness. This has implications for detecting general relatedness or fitness trends when averaged over several species.

scholarly journals Fitness costs of mating with preferred females in a scramble mating system

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 658-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey Swierk ◽  
Tracy Langkilde
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Rana Sylvatica ◽  
Female Offspring ◽  
Operational Sex Ratio ◽  
Male Choice ◽  
Wood Frogs ◽  
Multiple Parameters ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Male Mate

Abstract Little is known about the operation of male mate choice in systems with perceived high costs to male choosiness. Scramble mating systems are one type of system in which male choice is often considered too costly to be selected. However, in many scramble mating systems, there are also potentially high rewards of male choosiness, as females vary dramatically in reproductive output and males typically mate once per season and/or per lifetime. Using scramble mating wood frogs (Rana sylvatica), we tested whether males gain fitness benefits by mating with preferred females. We conducted choice trials (1 male presented simultaneously with 2 females) and permitted males to mate with their preferred or nonpreferred female. Offspring of preferred and nonpreferred females were reared in the laboratory and field, and we quantified various fitness-relevant parameters, including survivorship and growth rates. Across multiple parameters measured, matings with preferred females produced fewer and lower-quality offspring than did those with nonpreferred females. Our results are inconsistent with the idea that mate choice confers benefits on the choosing sex. We instead propose that, in scramble systems, males will be more likely to amplex females that are easier to capture, which may correlate with lower quality but increases male likelihood of successfully mating. Such male choice may not favor increased fitness when the operational sex ratio is less biased toward males in scramble mating systems but is, instead, a bet-hedging tactic benefitting males when available females are limited.

Combining predictions of sex ratio and mate choice models: pheromone-mediated mate choice by females in a parasitoid wasp

Behaviour ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 156 (11) ◽  
pp. 1127-1149
Author(s):  
T.N. Wittman ◽  
B.H. King
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Sex Ratios ◽  
Parasitoid Wasp ◽  
Production Potential ◽  
Young Males ◽  
Offspring Sex ◽  
Local Mate ◽  
Indirect Fitness ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Male Signals

Abstract In haplodiploid species, daughter production, but not son production, is sexual, requiring paternal contributions. Females may use male signals to choose a mate with better daughter-production potential, if the choice facilitates her production of adaptive sex ratios, e.g., female-biased sex ratios in systems operating under local mate competition (LMC). In the parasitoid wasp Urolepis rufipes, females preferred pheromone markings from males that had mated once versus multiply, were young rather than old, and were uninfected rather than infected when infection was low, but not when infection was high. Mates of singly-mated males had more female-biased offspring sex ratios than those of multiply-mated males, whereas there was no difference for mates of young versus old males. Thus, female preference for singly-mated males appears to provide indirect fitness benefits. A preference for young males, was not beneficial in the laboratory, but in nature young males may have mated less.

scholarly journals Sexual Selection and Tail-Length Dimorphism in Scissor-Tailed Flycatchers

The Auk ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan V. Regosin ◽  
Stephen Pruett-Jones
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Tail Length ◽  
Female Tail ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Female Quality ◽  
Early Arrival ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
Breeding Grounds ◽  
Clutch Initiation ◽  
Beak Length

Abstract Scissor-tailed Flycatchers (Tyrannus forficatus) exhibit elongated tails in both sexes, and sexual dimorphism in tail length. At Fort Sill, Oklahoma, during 1991 and 1992, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers exhibited sexual dimorphism (male–female) in tail length (1.48), with more moderate sexual dimorphism in wing length (1.09) and beak length (1.04). Based on an analysis of museum specimens, immature birds (<1 year of age) of both sexes in their first calendar year exhibited significantly shorter tails than adults (measured in the field). Furthermore, tail length was highly variable among both sexes relative to other morphological traits. Male tail length was correlated with early clutch initiation by the male's mate and, in 1991, with larger clutch size. Similarly, female tail length was correlated with early clutch initiation, and, in one year, larger clutches. Longer-tailed females also tended to arrive earlier on the breeding grounds in 1992, the only year for which such data were available. Assortative mating by tail length was observed. Those findings support the hypothesis that tail length is a sexually selected trait in this socially monogamous species, and that female tail length may be correlated with measures of female quality (e.g. early arrival and breeding, large clutches). However, confounding effects of age on tail length make it difficult to distinguish among various hypotheses for evolution of elongated tails in this species.

scholarly journals Sex-specific differential survival of extra-pair and within-pair offspring in song sparrows, Melospiza melodia

2011 ◽  
Vol 278 (1722) ◽  
pp. 3251-3259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca J. Sardell ◽  
Peter Arcese ◽  
Lukas F. Keller ◽  
Jane M. Reid
Keyword(s):  
Female Offspring ◽  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
Differential Survival ◽  
Major Life ◽  
Life History Stages ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Survival Difference ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Average Survival ◽  
Socially Monogamous

It is widely hypothesized that the evolution of female extra-pair reproduction in socially monogamous species reflects indirect genetic benefits to females. However, a critical prediction of this hypothesis, that extra-pair young (EPY) are fitter than within-pair young (WPY), has rarely been rigorously tested. We used 18 years of data from free-living song sparrows, Melospiza melodia , to test whether survival through major life-history stages differed between EPY and WPY maternal half-siblings. On average, survival of hatched chicks to independence from parental care and recruitment, and their total lifespan, did not differ significantly between EPY and WPY. However, EPY consistently tended to be less likely to survive, and recruited EPY survived for significantly fewer years than recruited WPY. Furthermore, the survival difference between EPY and WPY was sex-specific; female EPY were less likely to survive to independence and recruitment and lived fewer years than female WPY, whereas male EPY were similarly or slightly more likely to survive and to live more years than male WPY. These data indicate that extra-pair paternity may impose an indirect cost on females via their female offspring and that sex-specific genetic, environmental or maternal effects may shape extra-pair reproduction.

Intraspecific Variation in Courtship and Copulation Frequency: an Effect of Mismatch in Partner Attractiveness?

Behaviour ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 127 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 265-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Petrie ◽  
Fiona M. Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Mating Behaviour ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Pair Formation ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
Copulation Behaviour

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to present a verbal theoretical model that could account for the among pair variability in courtship and copulation behaviour that occurs both during and after pair formation in socially monogamous species. We assume that copulation acts to prevent mate loss, by reducing the availability of an individual to other potential partners. Variation in copulation and courtship frequency then arises as a result of variation in the risk of mate loss. Because of the constraints on free or ideal choice, pairs will form in which it may be possible for one individual to improve upon the quality of its partner. In a mismatched pair it will pay the poorer quality mate to guard the higher quality individual and prevent it from leaving to pair with a better quality mate. The poor quality individual will therefore solicit copulations at a high frequency while it's partner may not always respond. We predict that high levels of courtship and solicitation will relate to a high risk of mate loss and that a lack of response by a partner will relate to the potential opportunities it has to improve on partner quality. Our thesis is that variation in mating behaviour arises as a result of any deviations from assortative mating that may exist in a population.

scholarly journals The role of genetic constraints and social environment in explaining female extra-pair mating

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daiping Wang ◽  
Wolfgang Forstmeier ◽  
Katrin Martin ◽  
Alastair Wilson ◽  
Bart Kempenaers
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Power ◽  
Genetic Correlations ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Genetic Constraints ◽  
Female Promiscuity ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
Pair Mating ◽  
Extra Pair Mating

AbstractWhy females of socially monogamous species copulate with males other than their partner has been a long-standing, unresolved puzzle. We previously reported that female promiscuity appears to be a genetic corollary of male promiscuity (intersexual pleiotropy hypothesis). Here we put this earlier finding to a critical test using the same population of zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata. After three generations of artificial selection on male courtship rate, a correlate of extra-pair mating, we assess whether female promiscuity changed by indirect selection and we re-examine the crucial genetic correlations. Our new analyses with substantially increased statistical power clearly reject the hypothesis that male and female promiscuity are genetically homologous traits. Our study highlights that individual females show low repeatability in extra-pair mating behavior across different social environments. This emphasizes the potential importance of pair bond strength and the availability of favored extra-pair males as factors explaining variation in patterns of female promiscuity.

scholarly journals Sexually dimorphic role of oxytocin in medaka mate choice

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (9) ◽  
pp. 4802-4808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saori Yokoi ◽  
Kiyoshi Naruse ◽  
Yasuhiro Kamei ◽  
Satoshi Ansai ◽  
Masato Kinoshita ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Acid Metabolism ◽  
Mate Guarding ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Sexually Dimorphic ◽  
Medaka Fish ◽  
Amino Butyric Acid ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Courtship Displays

Oxytocin is a central neuromodulator required for facilitating mate preferences for familiar individuals in a monogamous rodent (prairie vole), irrespective of sex. While the role of oxytocin in mate choice is only understood in a few monogamous species, its function in nonmonogamous species, comprising the vast majority of vertebrate species, remains unclear. To address this issue, we evaluated the involvement of an oxytocin homolog (isotocin, referred herein as oxt) in mate choice in medaka fish (Oryzias latipes). Female medaka prefer to choose familiar mates, whereas male medaka court indiscriminately, irrespective of familiarity. We generated mutants of the oxt ligand (oxt) and receptor genes (oxtr1andoxtr2) and revealed that the oxt-oxtr1 signaling pathway was essential for eliciting female mate preference for familiar males. This pathway was also required for unrestricted and indiscriminate mating strategy in males. That is, eitheroxtoroxtr1mutation in males decreased the number of courtship displays toward novel females, but not toward familiar females. Further, males with these mutations exhibited enhanced mate-guarding behaviors toward familiar females, but not toward novel females. In addition, RNA-sequencing (seq) analysis revealed that the transcription of genes involved in gamma-amino butyric acid metabolism as well as those encoding ion-transport ATPase are up-regulated in bothoxtandoxtr1mutants only in female medaka, potentially explaining the sex difference of the mutant phenotype. Our findings provide genetic evidence that oxt-oxtr1 signaling plays a role in the mate choice for familiar individuals in a sex-specific manner in medaka fish.

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