Sperm competition-induced plasticity in the speed of spermatogenesis
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- 作者：Athina Giannakara ; Lukas Schärer ; Steven A. Ramm
- 关键词：phenotypic plasticity ; sexual selection ; spermatogenesis ; sperm competition ; testicular function
- 刊名：BMC Evolutionary Biology
- 出版年：2016
- 出版时间：December 2016
- 年：2016
- 卷：16
- 期：1
- 全文大小：794 KB
- 刊物主题：Evolutionary Biology; Animal Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Entomology; Genetics and Population Dynamics; Life Sciences, general;
- 出版者：BioMed Central
- ISSN：1471-2148
文摘
Background Sperm competition between rival ejaculates over the fertilization of ova typically selects for the production of large numbers of sperm. An obvious way to increase sperm production is to increase testis size, and most empirical work has focussed on this parameter. Adaptive plasticity in sperm production rate could also arise due to variation in the speed with which each spermatozoon is produced, but whether animals can respond to relevant environmental conditions by modulating the kinetics of spermatogenesis in this way has not been experimentally investigated.