Snook Rhonda R
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, S10 2TN.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2005 Jan;20(1):46-53. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2004.10.011. Epub 2004 Nov 6.
The outcome of sperm competition is mediated largely by the relative numbers of sperm from competing males. However, substantial variation in features of sperm morphology and behaviour, such as length, longevity and motility, exists and researchers have suggested that this variation functions in postcopulatory sexual selection. Recent studies have determined the effect of these sperm-quality traits on fertilization success and a synthesis of this literature reveals that they are important in both sperm competition and cryptic female choice. To understand how postcopulatory sexual selection influences sperm traits, future research should determine sex-specific interactions that influence paternity, identify genetic correlations between ejaculate characters, quantify the relative costs of producing different sperm traits, and test assumptions of models of sperm quality evolution. Such research will shed light on what evolutionary pressures are responsible for the diversity in sperm morphometry and behaviour.
精子竞争的结果很大程度上由参与竞争的雄性的精子相对数量所介导。然而，精子形态和行为特征存在显著差异，如长度、寿命和活力，研究人员认为这种差异在交配后的性选择中发挥作用。最近的研究已经确定了这些精子质量特征对受精成功的影响，对该文献的综合分析表明，它们在精子竞争和雌性隐秘选择中都很重要。为了理解交配后的性选择如何影响精子特征，未来的研究应该确定影响父权的性别特异性相互作用，识别射精特征之间的遗传相关性，量化产生不同精子特征的相对成本，并检验精子质量进化模型的假设。这样的研究将揭示哪些进化压力导致了精子形态测量和行为的多样性。
