Female multiple mating for fertility assurance in red flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum)
Female multiple mating for fertility assurance in red flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum)
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DOI：
10.1139/z05-073
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发表时间：
2005-07-01
影响因子：
1.4
通讯作者：
Yan, GY
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Pai, A;Bennett, L;Yan, GY
与多个配偶交配的成本包括精力和时间的消耗以及寿命的缩短，但许多分类群的雌性在第一次交配后不久就会与几个不同的伴侣交配。通常，人们并不清楚女性从这种行为中得到了什么。在这项研究中，我们使用红粉甲虫(Tribolium Castaneum Herbst，1797)来检验这样的假设，即雌性为了保证生育而与多个雄性交配，因为第一次交配通常不会产生后代。我们发现，当雌性与处女交配时，通过雌性产生后代的比例来衡量产生后代的可能性不会受到多次交配的影响。然而，当雌性与非处女伴侣交配时，多次交配会导致产生后代的可能性增加。为了确定多次交配提高产生后代的可能性的机制，我们进一步调查了观察到这一结果是因为多次交配提供了遗传上相容的精子，还是因为它提供了足够的精子。多次交配雌虫幼虫的存活率高于单次交配雌虫幼虫，但两组成虫后代总数无显著差异。在最初的交配后，雄性给雌性授精的能力在连续的交配中下降，这表明处女和非处女之间的无效交配很可能是由于雄性精子耗尽。因此，与多个雄性交配增加了雌性生育后代的可能性，并起到了生育保证的作用。
The costs of mating with multiple partners include expenditure of energy and time and a reduction in lifespan, but females of many taxa mate with several different partners shortly after their first copulation. Often it is not clear what females gain from this behaviour. In this study, we used the red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum Herbst, 1797) to test the hypothesis that females mate with multiple males for fertility assurance because the first copulation often does not lead to offspring production. We found that the probability of producing offspring, as measured by the proportion of females that produced offspring, was not affected by multiple mating when females were mated to virgin partners. However, when females were mated to nonvirgin partners, multiple mating led to an increased probability of producing offspring. To establish the mechanism through which multiple mating enhanced the probability of producing offspring, we further investigated whether this result was observed because multiple mating provided genetically compatible sperm or because it provided sufficient sperm. Viability of larvae from multiply mated females was higher than that of larvae from singly mated females, but the total number of adult offspring produced was not significantly different between the two groups. The capacity of males to inseminate females decreased in successive matings after the initial copulation, suggesting that ineffective copulations between virgin females and nonvirgin males are likely due to male sperm depletion. Therefore, mating with multiple males increased the probability that females would produce offspring and served as fertility assurance.