ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2011
Experimental evolution of sperm competitiveness in a mammal.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 70 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effects of sexual selection on functional and molecular reproductive divergence during experimental evolution in seed beetles.Evolution letters · 2026Article
- Thirty Years of the Biology of Spermatozoa: The Rise and Future of an Evolutionary Paradigm.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Mating system variation and gene expression in the male reproductive tract of Peromyscus mice.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Intergenerational response to sperm competition risk in an invasive mammal.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Does perception of female cues modulate male short-term fitness components inEcology and evolution · 2022Article
- Of mice and women: advances in mammalian sperm competition with a focus on the female perspective.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- Seminal fluid and accessory male investment in sperm competition.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- Sexual experience has no effect on male mating or reproductive success in house mice.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Exposure to male-dominated environments during development influences sperm sex ratios at sexual maturity.Evolution letters · 2019Article
- Ejaculate sperm number compensation in stalk-eyed flies carrying a selfish meiotic drive element.Heredity · 2019Article
- Genetic Factors Influencing Sperm Competition.Frontiers in genetics · 2019Review
- Sibling rivalry: Males with more brothers develop larger testes.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
- Queen reproductive tract secretions enhance sperm motility in ants.Biology letters · 2016Article
- Sperm competition risk drives plasticity in seminal fluid composition.BMC biology · 2015Article
- Female social preference for males that have evolved via monogamy: evidence of a trade-off between pre- and post-copulatory sexually selected traits?Biology letters · 2014Article
- Team swimming in ant spermatozoa.Biology letters · 2014Article
- No evidence of conpopulation sperm precedence between allopatric populations of house mice.PloS one · 2014Article
- No evidence of sperm conjugate formation in an Australian mouse bearing sperm with three hooks.Ecology and evolution · 2013Article
- Polyandry as a mediator of sexual selection before and after mating.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2013Review
- Polyandrous females benefit by producing sons that achieve high reproductive success in a competitive environment.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2011Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWhen females mate with multiple partners, sperm from rival males compete to fertilize the ova. Studies of experimental evolution have proven the selective action of sperm competition on male reproductive traits. However, while reproductive traits may evolve in response to sperm competition, this does not necessarily provide evidence that sperm competitive ability responds to selection. Indeed, a study of Drosophila failed to observe divergence in sperm competitive ability of males in lines selected for enhanced sperm offence and defence.
resultsAdopting the naturally polygamous house mouse (Mus domesticus) as our vertebrate model, we performed an experimental evolution study and observed genetic divergence in sperm quality; males from the polygamous selection lines produced ejaculates with increased sperm numbers and greater sperm motility compared to males from the monogamous lines. Here, after 12 generations of experimental evolution, we conducted competitive matings between males from lineages evolving under sperm competition and males from lineages subject to relaxed selection. We reduced variation in paternity arising from embryo mortality by genotyping embryos in utero at 14 days gestation. Our microsatellite data revealed a significant paternity bias toward males that evolved under the selective regime of sperm competition.
conclusionWe provide evidence that the sperm competitiveness phenotype can respond to selection, and show that improved sperm quality translates to greater competitive fertilisation success in house mice.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.