Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society, Jan 22, 2007
Mate choice can lead to the evolution of sexual ornamentation. This idea rests on the assumption ... more Mate choice can lead to the evolution of sexual ornamentation. This idea rests on the assumption that individuals with more elaborate ornaments than competitors have higher reproductive success due to gaining greater control over mating decisions and resources provided by partners. Nevertheless, how the resources and quality of sexual partners that individuals gain access to are influenced by the ornamentation of rival individuals remains unclear. By experimentally concealing and subsequently revealing female ornaments to males, we confirm in the fowl, Gallus gallus, that female ornamentation influences male mating decisions. We further show, by manipulating the relative ornament size of females, that when females had larger ornaments than competitors they were more often preferred by males and obtained more sperm, especially from higher quality males, as measured by social status. Males may benefit by investing more sperm in females with larger ornaments as they were in better cond...
Paternity is often determined by competition between the ejaculates of different males. Males can... more Paternity is often determined by competition between the ejaculates of different males. Males can also use particular behaviours or structures to manipulate how females use sperm. However, the ability of females to bias sperm utilization in favour of preferred males independently of male manipulation has not been demonstrated. Females are predicted to respond differentially to the sperm of different males when the reproductive interests of the sexes differ and when females are coerced into copulating. Here we show that in female feral fowl most copulations are coerced, and that females consistently bias sperm retention in favour of the preferred male phenotype. Females prefer to copulate with dominant males, but when sexually coerced by subordinate males, they manipulate the behaviour of dominant males to reduce the likelihood of insemination. If this fails, females differentially eject ejaculates according to male status in the absence of any male manipulation and preferentially re...
The female reproductive tract is where competition between the sperm of different males takes pla... more The female reproductive tract is where competition between the sperm of different males takes place, aided and abetted by the female herself. Intense postcopulatory sexual selection fosters inter-sexual conflict and drives rapid evolutionary change to generate a startling diversity of morphological, behavioural and physiological adaptations. We identify three main issues that should be resolved to advance our understanding of postcopulatory
Here we describe the complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome (16 583/4 bp) of th... more Here we describe the complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome (16 583/4 bp) of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). Primers were designed based on highly conserved regions of an alignment of three passerine complete mitochondrial DNA ( ...
Abstract The zebra finch is an important model organism in several fields 1, 2 with unique releva... more Abstract The zebra finch is an important model organism in several fields 1, 2 with unique relevance to human neuroscience 3, 4. Like other songbirds, the zebra finch communicates through learned vocalizations, an ability otherwise documented only in humans and a few other animals and lacking in the chicken 5—the only bird with a sequenced genome until now 6. Here we present a structural, functional and comparative analysis of the genome sequence of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), which is a songbird belonging to the ...
Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society, Jan 22, 2007
Mate choice can lead to the evolution of sexual ornamentation. This idea rests on the assumption ... more Mate choice can lead to the evolution of sexual ornamentation. This idea rests on the assumption that individuals with more elaborate ornaments than competitors have higher reproductive success due to gaining greater control over mating decisions and resources provided by partners. Nevertheless, how the resources and quality of sexual partners that individuals gain access to are influenced by the ornamentation of rival individuals remains unclear. By experimentally concealing and subsequently revealing female ornaments to males, we confirm in the fowl, Gallus gallus, that female ornamentation influences male mating decisions. We further show, by manipulating the relative ornament size of females, that when females had larger ornaments than competitors they were more often preferred by males and obtained more sperm, especially from higher quality males, as measured by social status. Males may benefit by investing more sperm in females with larger ornaments as they were in better cond...
Paternity is often determined by competition between the ejaculates of different males. Males can... more Paternity is often determined by competition between the ejaculates of different males. Males can also use particular behaviours or structures to manipulate how females use sperm. However, the ability of females to bias sperm utilization in favour of preferred males independently of male manipulation has not been demonstrated. Females are predicted to respond differentially to the sperm of different males when the reproductive interests of the sexes differ and when females are coerced into copulating. Here we show that in female feral fowl most copulations are coerced, and that females consistently bias sperm retention in favour of the preferred male phenotype. Females prefer to copulate with dominant males, but when sexually coerced by subordinate males, they manipulate the behaviour of dominant males to reduce the likelihood of insemination. If this fails, females differentially eject ejaculates according to male status in the absence of any male manipulation and preferentially re...
The female reproductive tract is where competition between the sperm of different males takes pla... more The female reproductive tract is where competition between the sperm of different males takes place, aided and abetted by the female herself. Intense postcopulatory sexual selection fosters inter-sexual conflict and drives rapid evolutionary change to generate a startling diversity of morphological, behavioural and physiological adaptations. We identify three main issues that should be resolved to advance our understanding of postcopulatory
Here we describe the complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome (16 583/4 bp) of th... more Here we describe the complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome (16 583/4 bp) of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). Primers were designed based on highly conserved regions of an alignment of three passerine complete mitochondrial DNA ( ...
Abstract The zebra finch is an important model organism in several fields 1, 2 with unique releva... more Abstract The zebra finch is an important model organism in several fields 1, 2 with unique relevance to human neuroscience 3, 4. Like other songbirds, the zebra finch communicates through learned vocalizations, an ability otherwise documented only in humans and a few other animals and lacking in the chicken 5—the only bird with a sequenced genome until now 6. Here we present a structural, functional and comparative analysis of the genome sequence of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), which is a songbird belonging to the ...
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