Skip Navigation


Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on March 7, 2008
Behavioral Ecology 2008 19(4):695-702; doi:10.1093/beheco/arm158
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Lay Summary
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
19/4/695    most recent
arm158v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Firman, R. C.
Right arrow Articles by Simmons, L. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Firman, R. C.
Right arrow Articles by Simmons, L. W.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Polyandry, sperm competition, and reproductive success in mice

Renée C. Firman and Leigh W. Simmons

Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Animal Biology (M092), University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Nedlands, Western Australia 6009, Australia

Address correspondence to R.C. Firman. E-mail: rcfirman{at}cyllene.uwa.edu.au.


  Abstract

Previous studies have attempted to assess the reproductive benefits of polyandry in mammals but have failed to account for variation in mating frequency across experimental treatments. Recently, it has been shown that multiply sired litters are common in natural populations of house mice, suggesting that female mice are actively polyandrous and sperm competition occurs in this species. Here we show that female house mice mated to 3 males (polyandry) had greater postbirth pup survival than females mated 3 times to the same male (monandry). Remote behavioral observations revealed that copulation frequency did not differ across our experimental treatments. We discuss this result with reference to genetic benefit hypotheses for the evolution of polyandry. Furthermore, by genotyping parents and offspring in the polyandrous treatment, we assessed which male reproductive traits contributed to paternity. We found that the first principal component describing variation in 10 male reproductive variables explained a significant proportion of the variation in paternity when males were second to mate. This component was weighted predominantly by measures of sperm length, suggesting that males with short sperm may be more successful when engaging in a disfavored role of sperm competition.

Key words: genetic incompatibility, intrinsic sire effects, multiple mating, offspring viability, paternity, sperm size.

Received 8 May 2007; revised 4 December 2007; accepted 5 December 2007.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Proc R Soc BHome page
M. A. Dziminski, J. D. Roberts, M. Beveridge, and L. W. Simmons
Sperm competitiveness in frogs: slow and steady wins the race
Proc R Soc B, November 22, 2009; 276(1675): 3955 - 3961.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.