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倚，优先选择与非亲缘雄性结合，以规避近交引发的遗传不相容问题。学界针对昆虫受精偏倚提出的潜在机制之一，是雌性对精子向储精器官转运过程的主动调控。本研究以大洋洲庭蟋（Teleogryllus oceanicus）的雌性个体为研究对象，探究其交配后规避近交的行为机制。我们评估了亲缘与非亲缘雄性对两次交配雌性储精量的相对贡献。为明确证实精子储存偏倚源自雌性调控而非隐性雄性选择，我们对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，当雌性受到亲缘雄性护偶时，无论其本次交配雄性的亲缘关系如何，雌性从当前交配对象处储存的精子量均会降低。本研究数据支持如下观点：蟋蟀雌性通过抑制精子储存的方式，可作为一种隐性雌性选择策略，从而规避近交带来的严重负面影响。