Behav Ecol
Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE, UK and.
Published: October 2015
Multiple mating by females (polyandry) is a widespread behavior occurring in diverse taxa, species, and populations. Polyandry can also vary widely within species, and individual populations, so that both monandrous and polyandrous females occur together. Genetic differences can explain some of this intraspecific variation in polyandry, but environmental factors are also likely to play a role. One environmental factor that influences many fundamental biological processes is temperature. Higher temperatures have been shown to directly increase remating in laboratory studies of insects. In the longer term, high temperature could also help to drive the evolution of larger-scale patterns of behavior by changing the context-dependent balance of costs and benefits of polyandry across environments. We examined the relative influence of rearing and mating temperatures on female remating in populations of that show a latitudinal cline in polyandry in nature, using a range of ecologically relevant temperatures. We found that females of all genotypes remated more at cooler temperatures, which fits with the observation of higher average frequencies of polyandry at higher latitudes in this species. However, the impact of temperature was outweighed by the strong genetic control of remating in females in this species. It is likely that genetic factors provide the primary explanation for the latitudinal cline in polyandry in this species.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arv172 | DOI Listing |
Proc Biol Sci
December 2019
Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn TR10 9FE, UK.
Selfish 'meiotic drive' alleles are transmitted to more than 50% of offspring, allowing them to rapidly invade populations even if they reduce the fitness of individuals carrying them. Theory predicts that drivers should either fix or go extinct, yet some drivers defy these predictions by persisting at low, stable frequencies for decades. One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that drivers are especially costly when homozygous, although empirical tests of this idea are rare and equivocal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBehav Ecol
October 2015
Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE, UK and.
Multiple mating by females (polyandry) is a widespread behavior occurring in diverse taxa, species, and populations. Polyandry can also vary widely within species, and individual populations, so that both monandrous and polyandrous females occur together. Genetic differences can explain some of this intraspecific variation in polyandry, but environmental factors are also likely to play a role.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hybridization provides a unique perspective into the ecological, genetic and behavioral context of speciation. Hybridization is common in birds, but has not yet been reported among bird species with a simultaneously polyandrous mating system; a mating system where a single female defends a harem of males who provide nearly all parental care. Unlike simple polyandry, polyandrous mating is extremely rare in birds, with only 1% of bird species employing this mating system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcol Evol
August 2014
Biosciences, University of Exeter Cornwall Campus, Penryn, TR10 9FE, U.K.
Female multiple mating, known as polyandry, is ubiquitous and occurs in a wide variety of taxa. Polyandry varies greatly from species in which females mate with one or two males in their lifetime to species in which females may mate with several different males on the same day. As multiple mating by females is associated with costs, numerous hypotheses attempt to explain this phenomenon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Biol Sci
May 2014
Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, , Cornwall Campus, Penryn TR10 9EZ, UK, School of Biology, University of Leeds, , Leeds LS2 9JT, UK, Centro de Biología Molecular 'Severo Ochoa' (CSIC-UAM), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, , Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, , Sheffield S10 2TN, UK, Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, , Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK.
The extent of female multiple mating (polyandry) can strongly impact on the intensity of sexual selection, sexual conflict, and the evolution of cooperation and sociality. More subtly, polyandry may protect populations against intragenomic conflicts that result from the invasion of deleterious selfish genetic elements (SGEs). SGEs commonly impair sperm production, and so are likely to be unsuccessful in sperm competition, potentially reducing their transmission in polyandrous populations.
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