ArticlePloS one2011
Male mating rate is constrained by seminal fluid availability in bedbugs, Cimex lectularius.
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Meta-analysis shows no consistent evidence for senescence in ejaculate traits across animals.Nature communications · 2024Pooled it
- Experimental Evidence That Prenatal and Postnatal Developmental Stress Affects the Adult Seminal Fluid Proteome in a Precocial Bird.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- The Developmental Environment Mediates Adult Seminal Proteome Allocation in Male Drosophila melanogaster.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Reproductive output of old males is limited by seminal fluid, not sperm number.Evolution letters · 2025Article
- Repeated Copulation and Guarding, and Their Relationship With Male and Female Morphological Traits in the Water ScorpionEcology and evolution · 2024Article
- What does not kill you makes you stronger? Effects of paternal age at conception on fathers and sons.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2024Article
- Sexual conflict and sexual networks in bed bugs: the fitness cost of traumatic insemination, female avoidance and male mate choice.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Genotype-by-environment interactions influence the composition of theProceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Age-related mating rates among ecologically distinct lineages of bedbugs, Cimex lectularius.Frontiers in zoology · 2023Article
- Sperm depletion in relation to developmental nutrition and genotype in Drosophila melanogaster.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2021Article
- Evolution of nuptial gifts and its coevolutionary dynamics with male-like persistence traits of females for multiple mating.BMC ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Article
- ThePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- Male reproductive aging arises via multifaceted mating-dependent sperm and seminal proteome declines, but is postponable inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Morphological and Developmental Traits of the Binucleation of Male Accessory Gland Cells in the Benthic Water Bug, Aphelocheirus vittatus (Hemiptera: Aphelochiridae).Journal of insect science (Online) · 2020Article
- BMP signaling inhibition inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Divergent allocation of sperm and the seminal proteome along a competition gradient inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Binucleation of male accessory gland cells in the common bed bug Cimex lectularius.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Physiological Maturation Lags Behind Behavioral Maturation in Newly EclosedThe Yale journal of biology and medicine · 2018Article
- A targeted in situ hybridization screen identifies putative seminal fluid proteins in a simultaneously hermaphroditic flatworm.BMC evolutionary biology · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sexual selection, differences in reproductive success between individuals, continues beyond acquiring a mating partner and affects ejaculate size and composition (sperm competition). Sperm and seminal fluid have very different roles in sperm competition but both components encompass production costs for the male. Theoretical models predict that males should spend ejaculate components prudently and differently for sperm and seminal fluid but empirical evidence for independent variation of sperm number and seminal fluid volume is scarce. It is also largely unknown how sperm and seminal fluid variation affect future mating rate. In bedbugs we developed a protocol to examine the role of seminal fluids in ejaculate allocation and its effect on future male mating rate. Using age-related changes in sperm and seminal fluid volume we estimated the lowest capacity at which mating activity started. We then showed that sexually active males allocate 12% of their sperm and 19% of their seminal fluid volume per mating and predicted that males would be depleted of seminal fluid but not of sperm. We tested (and confirmed) this prediction empirically. Finally, the slightly faster replenishment of seminal fluid compared to sperm did not outweigh the faster decrease during mating. Our results suggest that male mating rate can be constrained by the availability of seminal fluids. Our protocol might be applicable to a range of other organisms. We discuss the idea that economic considerations in sexual conflict research might benefit from distinguishing between costs and benefits that are ejaculate dose-dependent and those that are frequency-dependent on the mating rate per se.
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