Data from: Macronutrients and micronutrients drive trade-offs between male pre- and post-mating sexual traits

Nutrition fundamentally affects growth and reproduction, and identifying how nutrient intakes are linked to the expression of these life-history traits can advance understanding of the mechanisms underlying life history trade-offs. Males are thought to face trade-offs between the allocation of resources to pre-mating secondary sexual traits for gaining access to females and allocation to post-mating traits such as ejaculate quality that affects their fertility. We used the Geometric Framework for nutrition to examine the effects of macronutrient and micronutrient consumption on lifespan and the expression of pre- and post-mating sexual traits in male field crickets Teleogryllus oceanicus. We found that lifespan was maximized on diets with a low protein to carbohydrate (P:C) ratio, while pre-mating sexual traits (courtship song and cuticular hydrocarbons) were maximized on high P:C ratios. In contrast, sperm viability, a post-mating trait, was lowest on high P:C ratio diets. Higher consumption of micronutrients decreased lifespan and the general abundances of CHCs, but improved the performance of sperm viability and courtship song. We show that different macronutrients are not simply calories to be allocated to different traits, but directly determine the expression of different life history traits and mediate their trade-offs. We also highlight the importance of including micronutrients in the assessment of nutritional effects on the expression of life history traits.,Ng et al_2018_Functional Ecology_raw dataExcel spreadsheet containing the individual data of various life history traits with their protein, carbohydrate and micronutrient intakes.,

营养从根本上影响生长与繁殖，明确营养摄入（nutrient intakes）与这些生命史特征（life-history traits）表达之间的关联，有助于深化对生命史权衡（life history trade-offs）潜在机制的理解。雄性被认为面临资源分配的权衡——一方面需将资源投入到交配前的第二性征（pre-mating secondary sexual traits）以获取与雌性的接触机会，另一方面需投入到交配后的特征（post-mating traits）（如影响生育力（fertility）的精液质量（ejaculate quality））。我们采用营养几何框架（Geometric Framework for Nutrition），研究了宏量营养素（macronutrients）与微量营养素（micronutrients）摄入对雄性田野蟋蟀（Teleogryllus oceanicus）寿命（lifespan）及交配前后性征表达的影响。研究发现，低蛋白质-碳水化合物（protein to carbohydrate，P:C）比例的饮食可使寿命最大化；而高P:C比例的饮食则使交配前性征（如求偶鸣叫（courtship song）与表皮碳氢化合物（cuticular hydrocarbons））达到最优表达。相反，作为交配后特征的精子活力（sperm viability），在高P:C比例饮食下表现最差。微量营养素摄入增加会缩短寿命并降低表皮碳氢化合物（cuticular hydrocarbons，CHCs）的总体丰度，但能提升精子活力与求偶鸣叫的表现。我们的研究表明，不同宏量营养素并非仅是分配给不同特征的能量单位，而是直接决定不同生命史特征的表达并介导其权衡关系。我们还强调了在评估营养对生命史特征表达的影响时，纳入微量营养素的重要性。Ng等人2018年发表于《功能生态学》（Functional Ecology）的原始数据：包含各生命史特征个体数据及其蛋白质、碳水化合物与微量营养素摄入情况的Excel表格。