Polyandry in coal tits Parus ater: fitness consequences of putting eggs into multiple genetic baskets

Females of many species mate with multiple males within a single reproductive cycle. One hypothesis to explain polyandry postulates that females benefit from increasing within-brood genetic diversity. Two mechanisms may render sire genetic diversity beneficial for females, genetic bet-hedging vs. no...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of evolutionary biology 2007-05, Vol.20 (3), p.1115-1125
Main Authors: SCHMOLL, T, SCHURR, F.M, WINKEL, W, EPPLEN, J.T, LUBJUHN, T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal reproduction
Animals
Biodiversity
Birds
Evolutionary biology
extra-pair paternity
Female
Females
fitness consequences
GAMLSS
genetic bet-hedging
Genetic Variation
Genetics
Hypotheses
local recruitment
Male
Ovum - physiology
Parus ater
Passeriformes - genetics
Passeriformes - physiology
polyandry
Reproduction - physiology
Sexual Behavior, Animal - physiology
sire genetic diversity
variance
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Summary:Females of many species mate with multiple males within a single reproductive cycle. One hypothesis to explain polyandry postulates that females benefit from increasing within-brood genetic diversity. Two mechanisms may render sire genetic diversity beneficial for females, genetic bet-hedging vs. non-bet-hedging. We analysed whether females of the socially monogamous coal tit (Parus ater) benefit via either of these mechanisms when engaging in extra-pair (i.e. polyandrous) mating. To obtain a measure of within-brood genetic diversity as a function of paternal genetic contributions, we calculated a sire diversity index based on the established Shannon-Wiener Index. In 246 broods from two consecutive years, sire genetic diversity had no effect on either the mean or the variance in brood fitness measured as offspring recruitment within 4 years after birth. The hypothesis that benefits of increasing sire diversity contribute to selection for female extra-pair mating behaviour in P. ater was therefore not supported.
ISSN:1010-061X
1420-9101
DOI:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2006.01288.x