Data from: Female crickets assess relatedness during mate guarding and bias storage of sperm toward unrelated males

Recent evidence shows that females exert a post-copulatory fertilization bias in favour of unrelated males to avoid the genetic incompatibilities derived from inbreeding. One of the mechanisms suggested for fertilization biases in insects is female control over transport of sperm to the sperm-storage organs. We investigated post-copulatory inbreeding-avoidance mechanisms in females of the cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus. We assessed the relative contribution of related and unrelated males to the sperm stores of double-mated females. To demonstrate unequivocally that biased sperm storage results from female control rather than cryptic male choice, we manipulated the relatedness of mated males and of males performing post-copulatory mate guarding. Our results show that when guarded by a related male, females store less sperm from their actual mate, irrespective of the relatedness of the mating male. Our data support the notion that inhibition of sperm storage by female crickets can act as a form of cryptic female choice to avoid the severe negative effects of inbreeding.

最新研究证据表明，雌性个体可通过交配后受精偏向性选择与自身无亲缘关系的雄性，以规避近交引发的遗传不相容性问题。在昆虫中，已被提出的受精偏向性调控机制之一，是雌性对精子向储精器官运输过程的主动调控。我们以大洋洲蟋蟀（Teleogryllus oceanicus）的雌性个体为研究对象，探究其交配后规避近交的调控机制。我们评估了亲缘雄性与非亲缘雄性对两次交配雌性的储精库的相对贡献量。为明确证实受精偏向性储精源于雌性调控，而非隐蔽雄性选择，我们对已交配雄性以及执行交配后护偶行为的雄性的亲缘关系进行了实验操控。实验结果显示，当雌性接受亲缘雄性的护偶行为时，其储精库中来自当前交配雄性的精子量会减少，且该效应与当前交配雄性的亲缘关系无关。我们的实验数据支持这一假说：蟋蟀雌性对精子储存的抑制作用，可作为一种隐蔽雌性选择策略，从而规避近交带来的严重负面影响。