Effects of Female-Specific Selection for Reproductive Investment on Male Fertility Traits

Abstract

Despite sharing an autosomal genome, the often divergent reproductive strategies of males and females cause selection to act in a sex-specific manner. Selection acting on one sex can have negative, positive, or neutral fitness consequences on the opposite sex. Here we test how female-limited selection on reproductive investment in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) affects male fertility-related traits. Despite there being no difference in the size of males’ testes from lines selected for high female reproductive investment (H-line) or low female reproductive investment (L-line), in both lines, the left testis had a greater volume of sperm-producing tissue. Since H-line females have a larger left-side restricted oviduct, this suggests a positive genetic correlation between male and female gonad function, and that internal testis structure is a target of sexual selection. However, despite H-line males having previously been found to have greater fertilisation success in a competitive scenario, we found little evidence of a difference between the lines in sperm number, motility, velocity, length, or the number of sperm that reached the ova. Pre-copulatory cues and/or the role of seminal fluid in sperm motility may thus be more likely to contribute to the H-line male fertilisation advantage in this species.