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 ...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。目前学界提出的昆虫受精偏向性相关机制之一，是雌性对精子向储精器官运输过程的调控。本研究针对海洋拟斗蟋（Teleogryllus oceanicus）雌性个体的交配后近交规避机制展开探究，我们评估了亲缘雄性与非亲缘雄性对多次交配雌性储精量的相对贡献度。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，我们对交配雄性以及执行交配后配偶守卫的雄性的亲缘关系进行了操控。实验结果显示，当雌性受到亲缘雄性的配偶守卫时，无论其交配雄性的亲缘关系如何，雌性储存的当前交配雄性的精子量均会减少。本研究数据支持以下观点：蟋蟀雌性对精子储存的抑制作用可作为……