Martin Ryan A, Riesch Rüdiger, Plath Martin, Al Hanoosh Naif A, Wronski Torsten
Department of Biology, DeGrace Hall, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Department of Biological Sciences, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK.
Curr Zool. 2022 Oct 26;69(6):643-653. doi: 10.1093/cz/zoac084. eCollection 2023 Dec.
Reproductive traits are central to organismal fitness, and so the factors influencing patterns of reproduction and offspring survival are at the heart of biology. Making use of breeding data collected over 16 years at the King Khalid Wildlife Research Centre in Saudi Arabia, we investigated the reproductive biology of Arabian gazelles . Offspring survival was mainly a function of birth weight, with heavier offspring having higher survival rates than lighter offspring. However, while sons were heavier than daughters, daughters had higher survival rates. We could not find evidence that giving birth to sons negatively impacts offspring weight in the following year. We uncovered large narrow-sense heritability () in offspring weight at birth, while maternal effects () on birth weight were of lesser importance. However, maternal effects on offspring survival were strong until weaning age, while paternal effects dominated survival to sexual maturity and first reproduction. We propose that variation in maternal postnatal care might overshadow the effects of maternal inheritance of birth weights, while the overall strong heritability of weight at birth and the paternal effects on survival illustrates strong variance in sire fitness based on genetic quality, suggesting a role for sexual selection by female mate choice in wild populations.
繁殖性状是生物适应性的核心，因此影响繁殖模式和后代存活的因素是生物学的核心内容。利用在沙特阿拉伯哈利德国王野生动物研究中心收集的16年繁殖数据，我们研究了阿拉伯瞪羚的繁殖生物学。后代存活主要是出生体重的函数，较重的后代比较轻的后代有更高的存活率。然而，虽然雄性比雌性重，但雌性的存活率更高。我们没有找到证据表明生下雄性会对次年后代的体重产生负面影响。我们发现出生时后代体重的狭义遗传力（）很大，而母体对出生体重的影响（）则不太重要。然而，母体对后代存活的影响在断奶前很强，而父体影响在性成熟和首次繁殖的存活中占主导地位。我们提出，母体产后护理的差异可能会掩盖母体出生体重遗传的影响，而出生体重的总体强遗传力和父体对存活的影响表明，基于遗传质量，父体适应性存在很大差异，这表明雌性配偶选择在野生种群中进行性选择的作用。
