ArticleNature ecology & evolution2021
Fertilization mode drives sperm length evolution across the animal tree of life.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2021. 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.
- Per capita sperm metabolism is density dependent.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Pooled it
- A novel female reproductive organ differentiates insemination and postmating responses in bedbugs.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Ancient peptide-redox signalling underlies sperm motility in Marchantia.Nature plants · 2026Article
- Pervasive convergent evolution of sperm conjugation across the Arthropoda tree of life.Nature communications · 2026Review
- The intrinsically disordered protein SPE-56 is required for acrosomal-like exocytosis and fertility in Caenorhabditis elegans.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Navigating the Semantic Labyrinth of "Sex" in the Study of Reproductive Trait Evolution.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- Thirty Years of the Biology of Spermatozoa: The Rise and Future of an Evolutionary Paradigm.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- The novel HRD motif kinase SPE-60 is required for sperm development and motility in Caenorhabditis elegans.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Reproductive Strategies of the Swelled Vent Frog (Biology · 2025Article
- Male germ cells with Bag5 deficiency show reduced spermiogenesis and exchange of basic nuclear proteins.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2025Article
- Genomics of a sexually selected sperm ornament and female preference in Drosophila.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- The ancient and helical architecture of Elasmobranchii's spermatozoa enables progressive motility in viscous environments.PloS one · 2025Article
- Evolutionary Aspects of Sperm Physiology and Its Assessment.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Review
- Tetrapod sperm length evolution in relation to body mass is shaped by multiple trade-offs.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Coevolution between eggs and sperm of insects.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- The evolution of centriole degradation in mouse sperm.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Differences in sperm morphology between Alouatta palliata and Alouatta pigra are consistent with the intensity of sperm competition in each species.American journal of primatology · 2023Article
- Article
- Characterization of sperm and implications for male fertility in the last of the Rhynchocephalians.Conservation physiology · 2023Article
- Selection on sperm size in response to promiscuity and variation in female sperm storage organs.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2023Article
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3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Evolutionary biologists have endeavoured to explain the extraordinary diversity of sperm morphology across animals for more than a century. One hypothesis to explain sperm diversity is that sperm length is shaped by the environment where fertilization takes place (that is, fertilization mode). Evolutionary transitions in fertilization modes may transform how selection acts on sperm length, probably by affecting postcopulatory mechanisms of sperm competition and the scope for cryptic female choice. Here, we address this hypothesis by generating a macro-evolutionary view of how fertilization mode (including external fertilizers, internal fertilizers and spermcasters) influences sperm length diversification among 3,233 species from 21 animal phyla. We show that sperm are shorter in species whose sperm are diluted in aquatic environments (that is, external fertilizers and spermcasters) and longer in species where sperm are directly transferred to females (that is, internal fertilizers). We also show that sperm length evolves faster and with a greater number of adaptive shifts in species where sperm operate within females (for example, spermcasters and internal fertilizers). Our results demonstrate that fertilization mode is a key driver in the evolution of sperm length across animals, and we argue that a complex combination of postcopulatory forces has shaped sperm length diversification throughout animal evolution.
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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.