Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
School of Life Sciences, University of Sydney, Heydon-Laurence Building (A08), New South Wales 2006, Australia.
Biol Lett. 2018 Aug;14(8). doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0033.
Standardized swim-up trials are used in fertilization clinics to select particularly motile spermatozoa in order to increase the probability of a successful fertilization. Such trials demonstrate that sperm with longer telomeres have higher motility and lower levels of DNA damage. Regardless of whether sperm motility, and successful swim-up to fertilization sites, is a direct or correlational effect of telomere length or DNA damage, covariation between telomere length and sperm performance predicts a relationship between telomere length and probability of paternity in sperm competition, a prediction that for ethical reasons cannot be tested on humans. Here, we test this prediction in sand lizards () using experimental data from twice-mated females in a laboratory population, and telomere length in blood from the participating lizards. Female identity influenced paternity (while the mechanism was not identified), while relatively longer male telomeres predicted higher probability of paternity. We discuss potential mechanisms underpinning this result.
标准的游泳试验被用于受精诊所，以选择特别有活力的精子，从而提高受精成功的概率。这些试验表明，端粒较长的精子具有更高的活力和更低的 DNA 损伤水平。无论精子的运动能力以及向受精部位成功游动是否是端粒长度或 DNA 损伤的直接或相关影响，端粒长度与精子性能之间的共变关系预测了端粒长度与精子竞争中亲代概率之间的关系，这种预测由于伦理原因不能在人类身上进行测试。在这里，我们使用来自实验室种群中两次交配的雌性的实验数据以及参与蜥蜴的血液中端粒长度，在沙蜥蜴（）中检验了这一预测。雌性身份影响了亲代（尽管机制尚未确定），而相对较长的雄性端粒则预示着更高的亲代可能性。我们讨论了支持这一结果的潜在机制。
