Mate choice and sexual conflict in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Brachionus plicatilis</Emphasis> (Rotifera) |
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Authors: | Terry W Snell Jerry Kim Edgar Zelaya Rachel Resop |
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Institution: | (1) School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0230, USA;(2) Department of Biology, Ripon College, Ripon, WI 54971-0248, USA |
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Abstract: | Male mate choice in Brachionus plicatilis is based on information from coronal receptors and contact chemoreception of a glycoprotein signal on the body surface of
females. Male mating behavior is modulated by mating signal quality and strength, which determines male mating persistence
and circling intensity. We probe the sensory abilities of males by better resolving their discrimination of female age. Males
preferentially initiate mating with young females, but not too young. Males circle 0.2 h old females just hatched from resting
eggs only about 1/2 as frequently as 12 h old females. Males are even more discriminating of females with whom they copulate,
preferring 3 h old females significantly more than 0.2 h or 6 h old females. In contrast, males cannot distinguish between
virgin females and those who have already copulated. Similarly, males circled and copulated with females hatching from resting
eggs with equal frequency as those hatching from amictic eggs. The counterpoint to male mate choice is female resistance to
mating. When males contact females, the females respond with one of four behaviors: no response, acceleration, foot flipping,
or coronal retraction. In 65% of male–female encounters, there was no initial response by females. However, when males began
circling females, females accelerated 11.1 times more often than when males were absent. The second type of evasive female
behavior was foot-flipping, which tends to knock off males attempting to circle the female. In the presence of circling males,
females performed foot-flipping behavior three times more often than in the absence of males. Coronal retraction, where they
stop swimming and withdraw their corona, was observed less frequently than acceleration or foot-flipping, and there was no
difference in the presence or absence of males. These data are interpreted in the context of sexual conflict, where the behaviors
that optimize male and female fitness differ.
Guest editors: S. S. S. Sarma, R. D. Gulati, R. L. Wallace, S. Nandini, H. J. Dumont & R. Rico-Martínez
Advances in Rotifer Research |
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Keywords: | Mate choice Sexual conflict Males Mating Age Sex Swimming Foot |
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