ArticlePloS one2021
Exceptional long-term sperm storage by a female vertebrate.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Epiblast lumenogenesis is not a mammalian-specific trait.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Potential Causes of Shedding Aggregations in Prairie Rattlesnakes.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Pre-oviposition development of the brown anole (Anolis sagrei).Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists · 2026Article
- Proteome Analysis of Spermathecal Fluid and Seminal Plasma Reveals the Mechanism of Sperm Storage inAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Parentage Analysis in a Green Sea Turtle (Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Outside the box: comparative stem cell insights for fertility biotechnology and conservation.F&S reports · 2025Article
- Post-meiotic mechanism of facultative parthenogenesis in gonochoristic whiptail lizard species.eLife · 2024Article
- The surprising complexity and diversity of sperm storage structures across Galliformes.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Article
- Fission-fusion dynamics in the social networks of a North American pitviper.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Discovery of facultative parthenogenesis in a new world crocodile.Biology letters · 2023Article
- The life history ofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Females of many vertebrate species have the capacity to store sperm within their reproductive tracts for prolonged periods of time. Termed long-term sperm storage, this phenomenon has many important physiological, ecological, and evolutionary implications, particularly to the study of mating systems, including male reproductive success and post-copulatory sexual selection. Reptiles appear particularly predisposed to long-term sperm storage, with records in most major lineages, with a strong emphasis on turtles and squamates (lizards, snakes, but not the amphisbaenians). Because facultative parthenogenesis is a competing hypothesis to explain the production of offspring after prolonged separation from males, the identification of paternal alleles through genetic analysis is essential. However, few studies in snakes have undertaken this. Here, we report on a wild-collected female Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox, maintained in isolation from the time of capture in September 1999, that produced two healthy litters approximately one and six years post capture. Genetic analysis of the 2005 litter, identified paternal contribution in all offspring, thus rejecting facultative parthenogenesis. We conclude that the duration of long-term sperm storage was approximately 6 years (71 months), making this the longest period over which a female vertebrate has been shown to store sperm that resulted in the production of healthy offspring.
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