Sultanova Zahida, Carazo Pau
Behaviour & Evolution Group, Ethology Lab, Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology University of Valencia Valencia Spain.
Ecol Evol. 2019 May 21;9(11):6501-6507. doi: 10.1002/ece3.5227. eCollection 2019 Jun.
Understanding the effects of male and female age on reproductive success is vital to explain the evolution of life history traits and sex-specific aging. A general prediction is that pre-/postmeiotic aging processes will lead to a decline in the pre- and postcopulatory abilities of both males and females. However, in as much the sexes have different strategies to optimize their fitness, the decline of reproductive success late in life can be modulated by social context, such as sex ratio, in a sex-specific manner. In this study, we used to investigate whether sex ratio at mating modulates age effects on male and female reproductive success. As expected, male and female age caused a decrease in reproductive success across male-biased and female-biased social contexts but, contrary to previous findings, social context did not modulate age-related fitness decline in either of the two sexes. We discuss these results in the light of how sex ratio might modulate pre-/postcopulatory abilities and the opportunity for inter- and intrasexual competition in , and generally suggest that social context effects on these processes are likely to be species specific.
了解雄性和雌性年龄对繁殖成功率的影响对于解释生活史特征的进化和性别特异性衰老至关重要。一个普遍的预测是，减数分裂前/后的衰老过程将导致雄性和雌性交配前和交配后的能力下降。然而，由于两性有不同的策略来优化其适应性，生命后期繁殖成功率的下降可以通过社会环境，如性别比例，以性别特异性的方式进行调节。在本研究中，我们用以调查交配时的性别比例是否会调节年龄对雄性和雌性繁殖成功率的影响。正如预期的那样，在雄性偏多和雌性偏多的社会环境中，雄性和雌性的年龄都会导致繁殖成功率下降，但与之前的研究结果相反，社会环境并未调节两性中任何一方与年龄相关的适应性下降。我们根据性别比例如何调节交配前/后的能力以及在 中的种内和种间竞争机会来讨论这些结果，并总体表明社会环境对这些过程的影响可能具有物种特异性。
