Costs of receipt and donation of ejaculates in a simultaneous hermaphrodite

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sexual conflicts between mating partners can strongly impact the evolutionary trajectories of species. This impact is determined by the balance between the costs and benefits of mating. However, due to sex-specific costs it is unclear how costs compare between males and females. Simultaneous hermaphrodites offer a unique opportunity to determine such costs, since both genders are expressed concurrently. By limiting copulation of focal individuals in pairs of pond snails (<it>Lymnaea stagnalis</it>) to either the male role or the female role, we were able to compare the fecundity of single sex individuals with paired hermaphrodites and non-copulants. Additionally, we examined the investment in sperm and seminal fluid of donors towards feminized snails and hermaphrodites.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to non-mating focal snails, reciprocating individuals as well as male and female copulants experienced a significant fecundity reduction (~40%) after, on average, 3.07 ± 0.12 copulations in their allowed roles (for donors 2.98 ± 0.16 copulations and for recipients 3.14 ± 0.12 copulations). In a single copulation, significantly more sperm was donated to partners that were restricted to mating in the female role than to hermaphrodites, while seminal fluid transfer was unaffected by recipient type.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our data indicate that the costs of mating in both sex functions are high in <it>L. stagnalis</it>. This conclusion is based on fecundity data collected separately for male and female copulants. Male mating costs result from investment in expensive ejaculates, composed of sperm and seminal fluid. For female copulants, fecundity reduction correlated with transferred sperm numbers in the first copulation, while differences in transferred quantities of seminal fluid were not detected. These findings may point toward a "sperm effect" as a novel feature of pond snail reproductive ecology. In conclusion, sex allocation and sexual conflict both contribute to decreased female fecundity in pond snails.</p

Bateman gradients in hermaphrodites : an extendes approach to quantify sexual selection

Sexual selection is often quantified using Bateman gradients, which represent sex-specific regression slopes of reproductive success on mating success and thus describe the expected fitness returns from mating more often. Although the analytical framework for Bateman gradients aimed at covering all sexual systems, empirical studies are biased toward separate-sex organisms, probably because important characteristics of other systems remain incompletely treated. Our synthesis complements the existing Bateman gradient approach with three essential reproductive features of simultaneous hermaphrodites. First, mating in one sex may affect fitness via the opposite sex, for example, through energetic trade-offs. We integrate cross-sex selection effects and show how they help characterizing sexually mutualistic versus antagonistic selection. Second, male and female mating successes may be correlated, complicating the interpretation of Bateman gradients. We show how to quantify the impact of this correlation on sexual selection and propose a principal component analysis on male and female mating success to facilitate interpretation. Third, self-fertilization is accounted for by adding selfed progeny as a separate category of reproductive success to analyses of Bateman gradients. Finally, using a worked example from the snail Biomphalaria glabrata, we illustrate how the extended analytical framework can enhance our understanding of sexual selection in hermaphroditic animals and plants

Sexual selection gradients change over time in a simultaneous hermaphrodite

Sexual selection is generally predicted to act more strongly on males than on females. The Darwin-Bateman paradigm predicts that this should also hold for hermaphrodites. However, measuring this strength of selection is less straightforward when both sexual functions are performed throughout the organism's lifetime. Besides, quantifications of sexual selection are usually done during a short time window, while many animals store sperm and are long-lived. To explore whether the chosen timeframe affects estimated measures of sexual selection, we recorded mating success and reproductive success over time, using a simultaneous hermaphrodite. Our results show that male sexual selection gradients are consistently positive. However, an individual's female mating success seems to negatively affect its own male reproductive success, an effect that only becomes visible several weeks into the experiment, highlighting that the timeframe is crucial for the quantification and interpretation of sexual selection measures, an insight that applies to any iteroparous mating system

Author&apos;s personal copy Mating rate influences female reproductive investment in a simultaneous hermaphrodite, Lymnaea stagnalis

Multiple mating often imposes direct fitness costs on females but can provide indirect benefits such as enhanced genetic diversity and offspring quality. The costs and benefits of multiple mating have been investigated extensively in separate-sex species but less so in simultaneous hermaphrodites, despite being highly relevant given their flexible resource allocation and ability to compensate for costs experienced in one sexual role by gains in the opposite role. At high mating rates, the promiscuous hermaphroditic pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis experiences depressed female fecundity mediated by seminal fluid compounds. By experimentally manipulating mating opportunities, we tested for effects on female reproductive investment over 10 weeks. As expected, continuous access to mating partners resulted in decreased female investment, in terms of both total number of eggs (fecundity) and egg mass dry weight. Total investment in offspring increased over time for all treatments but was significantly less pronounced in treatments with continuous access to partners, and this was irrespective of partner identity. Investment per offspring was positively correlated with higher mating rates across treatments. Thus, multiple mating resulted in higher investment in egg masses at low than at higher mating rates. In contrast, at higher mating rates the investment per egg was higher. We conclude that, in L. stagnalis, mating multiply can severely impact female reproductive success and, although we cannot entirely exclude reallocation of resources to the male function from this study, we argue that this is probably the result of sexual conflict caused by previously identified seminal fluid components.

Impact of fruit orientation and pelleting material on water uptake and germination performance in artificial substrate for sugar beet

© 2020 Blunk et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Water uptake into seeds is a fundamental prerequisite of germination and commonly influenced by commercial seed enhancement technologies. The effect of fruit orientation and contrasting pelleting materials on germination and biological performance of sugar beet was assessed. The results indicated there was orientation dependent fruit shrinkage of 37% for the operculum side supplied by moisture compared to 4% for the basal pore side. The expansion rate of 5% compared to the original size, which was also observed for non-shrinking seeds, indicated this was a temporary effect. This behaviour has importance for the application pelleting materials to seeds. Pellets composed of materials exhibiting low levels of swelling act as a water distribution layer which increased germination rates. Careful selection of pelleting material is crucial as it has direct implications on germination speed and subsequent establishment rates

Receipt of Seminal Fluid Proteins Causes Reduction of Male Investment in a Simultaneous Hermaphrodite

Nakadera Y, Swart E M, Hoffer J NA, den Boon O, Ellers J, Koene J M. Receipt of Seminal Fluid Proteins Causes Reduction of Male Investment in a Simultaneous Hermaphrodite. Current Biology. 2014;24(8):859-862

Synthesis: Bateman Gradients in Hermaphrodites: An Extended Approach to Quantify Sexual Selection

Sexual selection is often quantified using Bateman gradients, which represent sex-specific regression slopes of reproductive success on mating success and thus describe the expected fitness returns from mating more often. Although the analytical framework for Bateman gradients aimed at covering all sexual systems, empirical studies are biased toward separate-sex organisms, probably because important characteristics of other systems remain incompletely treated. Our synthesis complements the existing Bateman gradient approach with three essential reproductive features of simultaneous hermaphrodites. First, mating in one sex may affect fitness via the opposite sex, for example, through energetic trade-offs. We integrate cross-sex selection effects and show how they help characterizing sexually mutualistic versus antagonistic selection. Second, male and female mating successes may be correlated, complicating the interpretation of Bateman gradients. We show how to quantify the impact of this correlation on sexual selection and propose a principal component analysis on male and female mating success to facilitate interpretation. Third, self-fertilization is accounted for by adding selfed progeny as a separate category of reproductive success to analyses of Bateman gradients. Finally, using a worked example from the snail Biomphalaria glabrata, we illustrate how the extended analytical framework can enhance our understanding of sexual selection in hermaphroditic animals and plants

Receipt of Seminal Fluid Proteins Causes Reduction of Male Investment in a Simultaneous Hermaphrodite

SummaryMating partners often have conflicting interests when copulating [1–3]. One of the major agents affecting female mating partners is seminal fluid, transferred along with sperm. The role of seminal fluid proteins (SFPs) in reproductive success is well studied in separate-sexed animals [4, 5] but is much less so in simultaneous hermaphrodites [6]. The latter potentially have a unique target to exploit for the sperm donor’s own benefit: the male function of their mating partners [7, 8]. Here we show that, in the great pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis, receipt of specific SFPs reduces both sperm transfer and paternity success in a subsequent insemination event. Lowering investment in the mating partner’s male function constitutes a novel role for SFPs. This demonstrates for the first time that hermaphrodites alter their mates’ male as well as female reproductive output [6]. Although it remains to be tested whether this represents mate manipulation or an adaptive response of recipients [9], our findings identify male investment as a new target for postcopulatory sexual selection [10]

Biomphalaria glabrata sample data for Bateman gradient analysis

Details of sampling procedures and calculations performed with this sample dataset are available in Online Appendix B of the corresponding publicatio

Copy number variation analysis in adults with catatonia confirms haploinsufficiency of SHANK3 as a predisposing factor

Catatonia is a motor dysregulation syndrome co-occurring with a variety of psychiatric and medical disorders. Response to treatment with benzodiazepines and electroconvulsive therapy suggests a neurobiological background. The genetic etiology however remains largely unexplored. Copy Number Variants (CNV), known to predispose to neurodevelopmental disorders, may play a role in the etiology of catatonia.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Copy number variation analysis in adults with catatonia confirms haploinsufficiency of SHANK3 as a predisposing factor journaltitle: European Journal of Medical Genetics articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmg.2016.08.003 content_type: article copyright: © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.status: publishe