Sperm morphology of the Rattini – are the interspecific differences due to variation in intensity of intermale sperm competition?
Tessa Pahl A , Hanna J. McLennan A , Yun Wang A , Anang S. Achmadi B , Kevin C. Rowe C D , Ken Aplin E and William G. Breed A F G
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Adelaide Medical School, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences & The Robinson Research Institute, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
B Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Center for Biology, Cibinong, Jawa Barat, Indonesia.
C Natural Sciences Department, Museums Victoria, Vic. 3001, Australia.
D School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic. 3010, Australia.
E Australian Museum, 1 William Street, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia.
F School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
G Corresponding author. Email: bill.breed@adelaide.edu.au
Reproduction, Fertility and Development 30(11) 1434-1442 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD17431
Submitted: 17 October 2017 Accepted: 5 April 2018 Published: 18 May 2018
Abstract
It is widely accepted that in mammals a causal relationship exists between postcopulatory sexual selection and relative testes mass of the species concerned, but how much it determines sperm size and shape is debatable. Here we detailed for the largest murine rodent tribe, the Rattini, the interspecific differences in relative testes mass and sperm form. We found that residual testes mass correlates with sperm head apical hook length as well as its angle, together with tail length, and that within several lineages a few species have evolved highly divergent sperm morphology with a reduced or absent apical hook and shorter tail. Although most species have a relative testes mass of 1–4%, these derived sperm traits invariably co-occur in species with much smaller relative testes mass. We therefore suggest that high levels of intermale sperm competition maintain a sperm head with a long apical hook and long tail, whereas low levels of intermale sperm competition generally result in divergent sperm heads with a short or non-existent apical hook and shorter tail. We thus conclude that sexual selection is a major selective force in driving sperm head form and tail length in this large tribe of murine rodents.
Additional keywords: Murid rodents, sexual selection, sperm evolution.
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