Female Fitness Optimum at Intermediate Mating Rates under Traumatic Mating
Female Fitness Optimum at Intermediate Mating Rates under Traumatic Mating
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0043234
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发表时间：
2012-08-22
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Anthes, Nils
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Lange, Rolanda;Gerlach, Tobias;Anthes, Nils
创伤性交配行为通常带有性冲突的特征，通常被认为是男性规避女性选择机制的策略。在一种奢侈的交配仪式中，雌雄同体的海蛞蝓用注射器状的阴茎管心针刺穿交配伙伴的外皮，注入前列腺液。创伤性注射后，将带刺的阴茎插入伴侣的生殖孔以转移精子。尽管交配存在创伤，但野外交配率仍超过了雌性受精保险所需的水平，这可能是因为雌性承受的成本被多精子接收的直接或间接好处所平衡。为了测试这个想法，我们让动物接触一系列相关的交配机会制度，并评估其对交配行为和雌性健康指标的影响。我们发现阴茎插入持续时间随着交配率的增加而减少，并且在中等交配率下雌性的生育力达到最大值。后一项发现表明，从雌性的角度来看，除了受精保险之外，更高的交配率也对这种遭受创伤性交配的物种有利。
Traumatic mating behaviors often bear signatures of sexual conflict and are then typically considered a male strategy to circumvent female choice mechanisms. In an extravagant mating ritual, the hermaphroditic sea slug Siphopteron quadrispinosum pierces the integument of their mating partners with a syringe-like penile stylet that injects prostate fluids. Traumatic injection is followed by the insertion of a spiny penis into the partner's gonopore to transfer sperm. Despite traumatic mating, field mating rates exceed those required for female fertilization insurance, possibly because costs imposed on females are balanced by direct or indirect benefits of multiple sperm receipt. To test this idea, we exposed animals to a relevant range of mating opportunity regimes and assessed the effects on mating behavior and proxies of female fitness. We find penis intromission duration to decrease with mating rates, and a female fecundity maximum at intermediate mating rates. The latter finding indicates that benefits beyond fertilization insurance can make higher mating rates also beneficial from a female perspective in this traumatically mating species.