Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Department Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics, Eberhard Gwinner Strasse, 82319 Seewiesen, Germany.
Curr Biol. 2022 Oct 24;32(20):R1115-R1121. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.066.
Most vertebrates, including all mammals and birds, are sexually reproducing organisms. The implication of sexual reproduction is that an adult bird exists because a male transferred sperm to the reproductive tract of a female during copulation, one of the sperm fertilized an egg, and the ensuing embryo developed into an individual male or female that in turn can reproduce. This fundamental feature of sexual life - the need to bring together male and female units (genomes, gametes, individuals) in a sequence of interactions - is both fascinating and fraught with conflict, because selection acts on individuals to maximize their own lifetime reproductive success (or on individual units of DNA to maximize the number of copies of themselves that remain in the gene pool). As a consequence, a bewildering diversity of reproductive traits and behaviours has evolved.
大多数脊椎动物，包括所有的哺乳动物和鸟类，都是有性繁殖的生物。有性繁殖的含义是，一只成年鸟类的存在是因为在交配过程中，一只雄性将精子输送到雌性的生殖道，其中一个精子使卵子受精，随后胚胎发育成一个个体的雄性或雌性，而这个个体又可以繁殖。这种有性生殖生活的基本特征——需要将雄性和雌性单位（基因组、配子、个体）在一系列相互作用中结合在一起——既令人着迷，又充满冲突，因为选择作用于个体，以最大限度地提高其自身的终生繁殖成功率（或者作用于 DNA 的个体单位，以最大限度地增加其在基因库中保留的自身拷贝数）。因此，进化出了令人眼花缭乱的多样性的生殖特征和行为。
