ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2019
Sexual selection and ageing: interplay between pre- and post-copulatory traits senescence in the guppy.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-analysis shows no consistent evidence for senescence in ejaculate traits across animals.Nature communications · 2024Pooled it
- Carotenoid-based ornaments predict survival in male but not female birds: A meta-analysis.iScience · 2026Article
- Reproductive output of old males is limited by seminal fluid, not sperm number.Evolution letters · 2025Article
- Long-term effects of widespread pharmaceutical pollution on trade-offs between behavioural, life-history and reproductive traits in fish.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Age-dependent decline in sperm quality and function in a naturally short-lived vertebrate.BMC ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- The evolution of ageing: classic theories and emerging ideas.Biogerontology · 2024Review
- 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
- Male allocation to ejaculation and mating effort imposes different life history trade-offs.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Female preferences for male golden snub-nosed monkeys vary with male age and social context.Current zoology · 2022Article
- A synthesis of senescence predictions for indeterminate growth, and support from multiple tests in wild lake trout.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Quantifying the costs of pre- and postcopulatory traits for males: Evidence that costs of ejaculation are minor relative to mating effort.Evolution letters · 2021Article
- Male age alone predicts paternity success under sperm competition when effects of age and past mating effort are experimentally separated.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Oviductal fluid counterbalances the negative effect of high temperature on sperm in an ectotherm model.Biology open · 2021Article
- Post-copulatory sexual selection allows females to alleviate the fitness costs incurred when mating with senescing males.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Traits associated with mating and fertilization success are expected to senesce with age, but limited information is available on their relative rates of senescence. In polyandrous species, male reproductive fitness depends on both mating and fertilization success. Because successful mating is a prerequisite for post-copulatory sexual selection, ejaculate traits are expected to senesce faster than pre-copulatory traits, as pre-copulatory sexual selection is often deemed to be stronger than post-copulatory sexual selection. This pattern has generally been found in the few empirical studies conducted so far. We tested this prediction in the guppy ( Poecilia reticulata), a livebearing fish characterized by intense sperm competition, by comparing the expression of male sexual traits at two ages (four and nine months). Contrary to prediction, we found that post-copulatory traits senesced at a significantly slower rate than pre-copulatory traits. We also looked at whether early investment in those sexual traits affects longevity, and the interaction between sperm age (duration of sperm storage inside the male) and male age. Our results suggest that the relative senescence rate of pre- and post-copulatory sexual traits may vary among species with different mating systems and ecology.
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