ArticleNature2010
Post-copulatory sexual selection and sexual conflict in the evolution of male pregnancy.
Article in Nature, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- Reproductive Strategies and Their Relevance to Vertebrate Conservation.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Sexual Selection on Non-Ornamental Traits Is Underpinned by Evidence of Genetic Constraints on Sex-Biased Expression in Dusky Pipefish.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Sensitivity of transcriptomics: Different samples and methodology alter conclusions in Gulf pipefish (Syngnathus scovelli).The Journal of heredity · 2025Article
- High rates of male courtship in a female-ornamented pipefish.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- The roles of sexual selection and sexual conflict in shaping patterns of genome and transcriptome variation.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Review
- Independent Evolution of Sex Chromosomes and Male Pregnancy-Related Genes in Two Seahorse Species.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Improvements to the Gulf pipefishGigaByte (Hong Kong, China) · 2023Article
- Genome and gene evolution of seahorse species revealed by the chromosome-level genome of Hippocampus abdominalis.Molecular ecology resources · 2022Article
- Reduced sexual size dimorphism in a pipefish population where males do not prefer larger females.Ecology and evolution · 2019Article
- Grey zones of sexual selection: why is finding a modern definition so hard?Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- When more is not merrier: Using wild population dynamics to understand the effect of density on ex situ seahorse mating behaviors.PloS one · 2019Article
- Female ornamentation and the fecundity trade-off in a sex-role reversed pipefish.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
- The 'Woman in Red' effect: pipefish males curb pregnancies at the sight of an attractive female.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- The genome of the Gulf pipefish enables understanding of evolutionary innovations.Genome biology · 2016Article
- Evolutionary ecology of pipefish brooding structures: embryo survival and growth do not improve with a pouch.Ecology and evolution · 2016Article
- Article
- The effects of food limitation on life history tradeoffs in pregnant male gulf pipefish.PloS one · 2015Article
- An essential role of the arginine vasotocin system in mate-guarding behaviors in triadic relationships of medaka fish (Oryzias latipes).PLoS genetics · 2015Article
- Multiple paternity is a shared reproductive strategy in the live-bearing surfperches (Embiotocidae) that may be associated with female fitness.Ecology and evolution · 2014Article
- No evidence for size-assortative mating in the wild despite mutual mate choice in sex-role-reversed pipefishes.Ecology and evolution · 2014Article
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2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Male pregnancy in seahorses, pipefishes and sea dragons (family Syngnathidae) represents a striking reproductive adaptation that has shaped the evolution of behaviour and morphology in this group of fishes. In many syngnathid species, males brood their offspring in a specialized pouch, which presumably evolved to facilitate male parental care. However, an unexplored possibility is that brood pouch evolution was partly shaped by parent-offspring or sexual conflict, processes that would result in trade-offs between current and future pregnancies. Here we report a controlled breeding experiment using the sexually dimorphic Gulf pipefish, Syngnathus scovelli, to test for post-copulatory sexual selection within broods and for trade-offs between successive male pregnancies as functions of female attractiveness. Offspring survivorship within a pregnancy was affected by the size of a male's mate, the number of eggs transferred and the male's sexual responsiveness. Significantly, we also found that embryo survivorship in a current pregnancy was negatively related to survivorship in the prior pregnancy, clearly demonstrating fitness trade-offs between broods. Overall, our data indicate that post-copulatory sexual selection and sexual conflict occur in Gulf pipefishes. The conflict seems to be mediated by a strategy of cryptic choice in which males increase rates of offspring abortion in pregnancies from unattractive mothers to retain resources for future reproductive opportunities. Hence, the male brood pouch of syngnathid fishes, which nurtures offspring, also seems to have an important role as an arbiter of conflict between the sexes.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.