No evidence for illegitimate young in monogamous and polygynous warblers

IN animals with internal fertilization, paternity is uncertain. In birds, the occurrence of copulations outside the pair-bond has been documented in a number of species 1,2 , but the extent to which these result in illegitimate young is largely unknown, and constitutes a major deficiency in our unde...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1990-01, Vol.343 (6254), p.168-170
Main Authors: Gyllensten, Ulf B, Jakobsson, Sven, Temrin, Hans
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alleles
Animals
Behavior
Biological and medical sciences
Birds
Birds - physiology
Copulation
Crosses, Genetic
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNA Probes
DNA, Satellite - genetics
Estimates
Extra-pair copulation
Female
Females
Fertilization
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution
Humanities and Social Sciences
Laboratories
letter
Loci
Male
Males
Monogamy
multidisciplinary
Natural populations
Nucleotide sequence
Offspring
Paternity
Paternity testing
Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
Reproduction
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sexual Behavior, Animal
Species
Willow
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Summary:IN animals with internal fertilization, paternity is uncertain. In birds, the occurrence of copulations outside the pair-bond has been documented in a number of species 1,2 , but the extent to which these result in illegitimate young is largely unknown, and constitutes a major deficiency in our understanding of avian mating systems 3–5 . The analysis of tandemly repeated sequences (minisatellites), has enhanced our ability to make individual identifications and paternity determinations 6–11 . Here we describe the use of a bird minisatellite DNA probe in assigning paternity in natural populaá-tions of the monogamous willow warbler Phylloscopus trochilus and of the polygynous wood warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix . In both species this probe detects a multiple locus pattern and a single locus that exhibits a variable number of tandem repeats12. Although we observed intrusions by non-resident males into the territories of paired males and extra-pair copulations, no illegitimate offspring were detected among 176 young from 32 families of both species, implying that extra-pair copulations have little or no genetic impact.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/343168a0