10.5061/DRYAD.K98SF7M40
Devigili, Alessandro
0000-0001-8104-5195
Stockholm University
Cardozo, Gabriela
National University of Córdoba
Antonelli, Pietro
University of Padua
Pilastro, Andrea
University of Padua
Data from: Female sperm storage mediates postcopulatory costs and benefits
of ejaculate anticipatory plasticity in the guppy
Dryad
dataset
2020
adaptive plasticity
sperm priming
sperm longevity
2020-07-27T00:00:00Z
2020-07-27T00:00:00Z
en
35191 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Males of many species evolved the capability of adjusting their ejaculate
phenotype in response to social cues to match the expected mating
conditions. When females store sperm for prolonged time, the expected
fitness return of plastic adjustments of ejaculate phenotype may depend on
the interval between mating and fertilization. While, prolonged female
sperm storage (FSS) increases the opportunity for sperm competition, as a
consequence of the longer temporal overlapping of ejaculates from several
males, it may also create variable selective forces on ejaculate
phenotype, for example by exposing trade-offs between sperm velocity and
sperm survival. We evaluated the relationship between the plasticity of
ejaculate quality and FSS in the guppy, Poecilia reticulata, a polyandrous
livebearing fish in which females store sperm for several months and where
stored sperm contribute significantly to a male’s lifelong reproductive
success. In this species, males respond to the perception of future mating
opportunities by increasing the quantity (number) and quality (swimming
velocity) of ready-to-use sperm (an anticipatory response called ‘sperm
priming’). Here we investigated 1) the effect of sperm priming on in-vitro
sperm viability at stripping and its temporal decline (as estimate of
sperm survival), and, 2) the in-vitro competitive fertilization success in
relation to female sperm storage using artificial insemination. As
expected, sperm-primed males produced more numerous and faster sperm, but
with a reduced in-vitro sperm viability at stripping and after 4 hours,
compared to their counterparts. Artificial insemination revealed that the
small (non-significant) advantage of primed sperm when fertilization
immediately follows insemination, is reversed when eggs are fertilized by
female-stored sperm, weeks after insemination. By suggesting a plastic
trade-off between sperm velocity and viability, these results demonstrate
that prolonged female sperm storage generates divergent selection
pressures on ejaculate phenotype.
Complete dataset The dataset consists in a .xlsx file with 5 sheets where:
Fertilization success of males with different females, male morphology and
colouration, number of sperm produced, sperm velocity and sperm viability
are reported.