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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access published online on February 2, 2005
Behavioral Ecology, doi:10.1093/beheco/ari027
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Received January 26, 2004
Revised November 3, 2004
Accepted December 16, 2004

Article

No evidence for increased offspring heterozygosity from extrapair mating in the reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)

Oddmund Kleven 1* and Jan T. Lifjeld 1

1 Zoological Museum, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1172 Blindern, N-0318 Oslo, Norway

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Oddmund Kleven, E-mail: oddmund.kleven{at}nhm.uio.no


  Abstract

It has been hypothesized that females mate multiply to increase the heterozygosity of their progeny because heterozygous individuals are assumed to have a fitness advantage. Females can maximize heterozygosity of their offspring by mating with genetically unrelated and/or heterozygous males. We tested these predictions in a socially monogamous passerine, the reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus), where extrapair paternity occurs frequently. The results based on genotypes at nine microsatellite loci revealed that females were no less genetically related to the extrapair male(s) (EPMs) than to their pair male (i.e., breeding partner) and that EPMs were no more heterozygous than the males they cuckolded. In addition, a direct comparison of maternal half-siblings naturally raised in the same brood showed that extrapair young were no more heterozygous than within-pair young. Thus, female reed buntings do not seem to mate with EPMs to increase offspring heterozygosity. It is not yet known whether extrapair mating involves any benefits at all to females in this species.

Keywords: Emberiza schoeniclus; extrapair paternity; genetic benefits; half-sibling comparisons; heterozygosity.
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