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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on August 4, 2008
Behavioral Ecology 2008 19(6):1179-1185; doi:10.1093/beheco/arn089
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© 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

A mechanism for cryptic female choice in chinook salmon

Patrice Rosengravea, Neil J. Gemmellb, Victoria Metcalfc, Katherine McBridea and Robert Montgomeried

a School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand b Centre for Reproduction and Genomics, Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, University of Otago, PO Box 913, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand c Agriculture and Life Sciences Division, Lincoln University, PO Box 84, Lincoln, Canterbury 7647, New Zealand d Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada

Address correspondence to P. Rosengrave. E-mail: patricerosengrave{at}paradise.net.nz.


  Abstract

Female mate choice after copulation or spawning is cryptic when a female differentially influences the fertilization success of sperm from different males. We tested whether ovarian fluid could act as a potential mechanism of cryptic female choice (CFC) in chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) by comparing how ovarian fluid from each of 7 females affected the sperm behavior of 11 different males. Using computer-assisted sperm analysis, we measured sperm velocity, motility, longevity, and linearity from the ejaculates of each male activated in the ovarian fluid from each female. Mean sperm swimming speed, path trajectory, and longevity differed significantly among males, and within males depended on the female's ovarian fluid in which it was activated. Most important, the pattern of within-male variation in these traits also varied significantly among males in response to different females’ ovarian fluids. As sperm velocity is known to be a prime determinant of fertilization success in externally fertilizing fishes. This finding suggests that variation in the composition of female ovarian fluid may be a mechanism for CFC, whereby females differentially enhance the swimming speed of sperm from different males. Thus, female ovarian fluid can alter relative male fertilization success when there is intense sperm competition, as there is in this and other group spawning fish species.

Key words: chinook salmon, cryptic female choice, Oncorhynchus tshawytshca, ovarian fluid, sperm traits, sperm velocity.

Received 13 February 2008; revised 5 June 2008; accepted 23 June 2008.


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