Molecular evidence of post-copulatory inbreeding avoidance in the field cricket Gryllus bimaculatus

Bretman, A., Wedell, N. and Tregenza, T. (2003) Molecular evidence of post-copulatory inbreeding avoidance in the field cricket Gryllus bimaculatus. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B: Biological sciences, 271 (1535). pp. 159-164. ISSN 1471-2954

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Abstract

Female promiscuity has broad implications for individual behaviour, population genetics and even speciation. In the field cricket Gryllus bimaculatus, females will mate with almost any male presented to them, despite receiving no recorded direct benefits. Previous studies have shown that female crickets can benefit from polyandry through increased hatching success of their eggs. There is evidence that this effect is driven by the potential of polyandrous females to avoid fertilizing eggs with sperm from genetically incompatible males. We provide direct evidence supporting the hypothesis that polyandry is a mechanism to avoid genetic incompatibilities resulting from inbreeding. Using microsatellite markers we examined patterns of paternity in an experiment where each female mated with both a related and an unrelated male in either order. Overall, unrelated males were more successful in gaining paternity than were related males, but this effect was driven by a much greater success of unrelated males when they were the first to mate.

Item Type:	Article
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© 2003 The Royal Society
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology (Leeds)
Depositing User:	Repository Officer
Date Deposited:	14 Mar 2006
Last Modified:	08 Feb 2013 17:01
Status:	Published
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.1098/rspb.2003.2563
URI:	http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/88

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