TY - JOUR
T1 - Resolving mechanisms of competitive fertilization success in drosophila Melanogaster
AU - Manier, Mollie K.
AU - Belote, John M.
AU - Berben, Kirstin S.
AU - Novikov, David
AU - Stuart, Will T.
AU - Pitnick, Scott
PY - 2010/4/16
Y1 - 2010/4/16
N2 - Our understanding of postcopulatory sexual selection has been constrained by an inability to discriminate competing sperm of different males, coupled with challenges of directly observing live sperm inside the female reproductive tract. Real-time and spatiotemporal analyses of sperm movement, storage, and use within female Drosophila melanogaster inseminated by two transgenic males with, respectively, green and red sperm heads allowed us to unambiguously discriminate among hypothesized mechanisms underlying sperm precedence, including physical displacement and incapacitation of "resident" sperm by second males, female ejection of sperm, and biased use of competing sperm for fertilization. We find that competitive male fertilization success derives from a multivariate process involving ejaculate-female and ejaculate-ejaculate interactions, as well as complex sperm behavior in vivo.
AB - Our understanding of postcopulatory sexual selection has been constrained by an inability to discriminate competing sperm of different males, coupled with challenges of directly observing live sperm inside the female reproductive tract. Real-time and spatiotemporal analyses of sperm movement, storage, and use within female Drosophila melanogaster inseminated by two transgenic males with, respectively, green and red sperm heads allowed us to unambiguously discriminate among hypothesized mechanisms underlying sperm precedence, including physical displacement and incapacitation of "resident" sperm by second males, female ejection of sperm, and biased use of competing sperm for fertilization. We find that competitive male fertilization success derives from a multivariate process involving ejaculate-female and ejaculate-ejaculate interactions, as well as complex sperm behavior in vivo.
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U2 - 10.1126/science.1187096
DO - 10.1126/science.1187096
M3 - Article
C2 - 20299550
AN - SCOPUS:77951184173
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 328
SP - 354
EP - 357
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 5976
ER -